Ernst August of Hanover (1954)

Ernst August Prince of Hanover, Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland (born February 26, 1954 in Hanover ), from the Guelph family , is the current head of the former royal house of Hanover and the former ducal house of Braunschweig .

He is a great-grandson of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II (grandson of his only daughter ) and in the direct male line the second oldest living male descendant of King George III. from Great Britain and Ireland (after his cousin Georg , * 1949). He has German , Austrian and British citizenship .

family

Ernst August is the eldest son of Ernst August Prince of Hanover , Duke of Braunschweig Lüneburg (1914–1987) and his wife Ortrud Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1925–1980). His siblings are:

• Marie Viktoria Luise Hertha Friederike (* 1952) ⚭ 1982 Michael Graf von Hochberg
• Ludwig Rudolph (born November 28, 1955; † November 28, 1988) ⚭ October 4, 1987 Countess Isabella von Thurn and Valsassina (1962–1988)
• Olga Sophie Charlotte Anna (* 1958)
• Alexandra Irene Margitha Elisabeth Bathildis (* 1959) ⚭ 1981 Andreas Fürst zu Leiningen
• Heinrich Julius (* 1961) ⚭ 1999 Thyra von Westernhagen

Via his father's sister, Queen Friederike of Greece (1917–1981), Ernst August is a first cousin of the former King Constantine II of Greece and his sister, Queen Sophia of Spain (* 1938). His uncle Georg Wilhelm (1915-2006) was married to Princess Sophie of Greece (1914-2001), a sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh .

After training as a farmer in England and Canada, he worked as a businessman and producer of animal and documentary films.

In 1981 he married the Swiss Chantal Hochuli (born June 2, 1955 in Zurich), with whom he has two sons:

• Ernst August (* 1983) ⚭ 2017 Ekaterina Malysheva
• Christian Heinrich (* 1985) ⚭ 2017 Alessandra de Osma

His first marriage was divorced in 1997 in London due to adultery with an undisclosed woman.

On January 23, 1999 he married Princess Caroline of Monaco (born January 23, 1957) from the Grimaldi family and has a daughter with her, Alexandra Charlotte Ulrike Maryam Virginia Princess of Hanover (born July 20, 1999).

In 2004 Ernst August transferred the agricultural and forestry property of the House of Hanover in Germany and Austria, including the Marienburg Castle , the neighboring Calenberg estate , the Princely House in Hanover- Herrenhausen as well as the exile seat of the family in Gmunden , his son Ernst August, who has been in charge of administration since 2012 and also increasingly represents the Welfenhaus.

Name and title

The official name in the German passport is: Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Oskar Berthold Friedrich-Ferdinand Christian-Ludwig Prince of Hanover, Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland . In the British passport, the name is His Royal Highness, Ernest Augustus Guelph .

The title Prince of Great Britain and Ireland , which King George V confirmed to his grandfather Ernst August Duke of Braunschweig and his father and his siblings on June 17, 1914 , was not withdrawn in 1919, but was temporarily only granted ad personam to previous generations in 1914 has not yet been confirmed for Ernst August; However, this title found its way into German civil status documents in 1914 and has therefore been part of the German family name since 1919.

Public life

Von Hannover has hit the media several times with violent or insulting outbursts.

In January 1998 he beat up the Hanoverian cameraman Karsten Thürnau and the photographer Rainer Dröse with his umbrella in front of Gut Calenberg and was filmed by the former. This made headlines nationwide and earned him the nicknames "Prince of Beatings" or "August of Beatings". The Hanover Regional Court sentenced him to pay the cameraman 15,000 marks in compensation for pain and suffering  . A criminal case for bodily harm was set against payment of 90,000 marks.

In 1999, on the sidelines of the Salzburg Festival , he kicked a colorful photographer, which caused her to suffer from a bruise . In the first instance he was therefore sentenced in December 2001 by the Springe District Court to eight months suspended sentence and a fine of 500,000 marks ; In the second instance before the Hanover Regional Court, the proceedings with regard to the more serious Kenya allegations (see below) were discontinued.

He also became conspicuous at the World Exhibition in Hanover in 2000 when he urinated in the Turkish pavilion and was photographed by a paparazzo , which at times earned him the nickname "Pinkelprinz" in the tabloids. The “Pinkelprinz” campaign, which was mainly run by Bild , also led to another “freaking out”, as he insulted Anne-Kathrin Berger, the head of Bild's editorial team in Hanover, several times on the phone and pointed out that he was only “ with assholes like journalists ”and that the lady herself knows best“ what her fucking newspaper is doing ”. These calls were then printed in the picture and the newspaper filed a complaint against him.

In June 2003 Hanover caught a car at 211 km / h on a French motorway and was therefore sentenced to a one-month driving ban and a fine of 728 euros in France. His lawsuit against publication in German newspapers failed most recently before the Federal Constitutional Court .

In 2004, Hanover was first sentenced to a fine of 445,000 euros for dangerous bodily harm because in January 2000 he was alleged to have beaten a German hotelier in Kenya until he was hospitalized. He was seeking a retrial . In March 2007, his application for reopening was rejected by the Hildesheim Regional Court in the first instance, but was granted by the Celle Higher Regional Court . From June 15, 2009, the Hildesheim Regional Court was tried again. On March 9, 2010, Hanover sentenced her to a fine of 200,000 euros (40 daily rates) for simple bodily harm; he had given two slaps. An appeal against it was rejected in April 2011 by the higher regional court of Celle as "obviously unfounded", so the judgment is final.

The fact that in 2011, in contrast to his wife Caroline, he stayed away from the wedding of her brother Albert II and Charlene Wittstock caused quite a stir.

On July 15, 2020 there was an incident in the Hanover hunting lodge in Grünau im Almtal , Upper Austria, which ended with his admission to a psychiatric department. According to the police, he called them because he was in need and urgently needed help. When the assistants arrived, however, he behaved extremely aggressively and physically attacked them. He is said to have attacked the officers with a knife sharpener. Since a self-endangerment could not be excluded, he was taken to the psychiatry of the Vöcklabruck hospital . The local prosecutor's office is investigating the prince. From Hanover himself presented the incident differently: He called the emergency services about hypoglycaemia. He doesn't know why the police came with them. The police suddenly attacked him for no reason, he just defended himself and "probably boxed back".

Another incident occurred on July 20, 2020; This time from Hanover on a street not far from a police station in Scharnstein, Austria, police officers were molested and attacked them with a baseball bat.

Others

The punk band terror group dedicated the song Ernst August to him , in which he is referred to as "[...] Sid Vicious of the aristocracy [...]" and is (satirically) praised for his violent behavior. The Oi! Punk band Pöbel & Gesocks dedicated the song Adel obliged to him , in which he is referred to as the “punk in the German nobility”. Furthermore, the punk band Casanovas Schwule Seite processed the incidents at the World Exhibition in Hanover in their song Expo 2000 .

In March 2000 the cigarette brand Lucky Strike published an advertisement without Ernst August's permission with a dented cigarette packet and the text “Was that serious? Or August? ”. A lawsuit brought by Ernst August because of this was dismissed by the Federal Court of Justice in June 2008 . In April 2012 it became known that Ernst August had been suing the Federal Republic of Germany in this matter at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) since 2009 . He sees his human rights being violated by the fact that German courts have declared the advertisement admissible. Such advertising texts would put him in the "social pillory" as a "brutal thug". On February 19, 2015, it became known that Ernst August and his co-plaintiff Dieter Bohlen had failed with their application before the first chamber of the ECHR.

See also

• Tribe list of the Guelphs

literature

• Bodo von Dewitz (ed.): Beauty, power, transience. Photographs from the collection of Prince Ernst August von Hannover. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-86521-691-5 .

Web links

• Presentation on the website of the Welfen

Individual evidence

1. ^ Action by Prince Ernst August von Hanover for failure to publish the reason for his divorce dismissed. In: Press releases Federal Court of Justice . June 29, 1999, accessed March 7, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Ernst August Junior in the HAZ interview In the role of a prince : "The surname in the passport says 'Prince of Hanover Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland'."
3. ↑ Focus , July 3, 2017: “Prince Ernst August of Hanover, married to Caroline von Monaco (60) for the second time, is not only Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, but also the Royal Prince of Great Britain and Ireland. He has a German, Austrian and English passport. In the latter his name is: His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus Guelph » [1]
4. ↑ See also: British Prince (English WP)
5. ↑ spiegel.de: 17,000 marks for the umbrella attack Spiegel.de from October 4, 2001, accessed on February 2, 2017
6. ↑ Ernst August has to pay repair costs for damaged cameras ( Memento of November 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), AFP, October 4, 2001
7. ↑ Prince Ernst August sentenced to a fine , Die Welt, November 26, 2004
8. ↑ Ernst August von Hannover has to go to court again ( Memento from November 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), AFP, December 14, 2001
9. ↑ rp online, October 14, 2000
10. ↑ Prince Ernst August von Hannover loses lawsuits against newspapers ( memento of September 28, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ), openpr.de, September 14, 2004
11. ↑ BVerfG, AZ: 1 BvR 565/06
12. ↑ Ernst August von Hannover will in future have a criminal record ( memento of November 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), AFP, June 24, 2005
13. ↑ Conviction for bodily harm  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , rp-online.de, June 23, 2005  
14. ↑ Prince Ernst August von Hannover has a criminal record  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , AFP, March 21, 2007  
15. ↑ beating trial of Prince Ernst August: duel for the honor - SPIEGEL ONLINE
16. ↑ Prince Ernst August: 100,000 euros per slap in the face - Boulevard - FOCUS Online - Nachrichten
17. ^ Higher Regional Court of Celle rejects the appeal by Ernst August Prince of Hanover , press release from the Higher Regional Court of Celle, Az .: 31 Ss 7/11
18. ↑ n-tv.de on July 3, 2011: Prominent wedding guests: About whom Monaco whispers
19. ↑ After Prince Ernst August was sent to psychiatry: Another scandal - Prince stormed the police station with a baseball bat , Jennifer Lanzinger and Judith Braun on merkur.de, 16./22. July 2020, accessed July 22, 2020
20. ↑ Lyrics of the song "Ernst August"
21. ↑ Federal Court of Justice: naming celebrities in advertising , Az .: I ZR 223/05, from June 5, 2008
22. ↑ Ernst August and Bohlen are suing Germany ( Memento of April 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
23. ^ Dieter Bohlen and Prince Ernst August are suing Germany
24. ↑ Bohlen, "Bild" and human rights
25. ↑ Lucky Strike advertisement: Schlappe für Bohlen and Ernst August , Der Standard , February 19, 2015 (accessed March 12, 2015)

predecessor	Office	successor
Ernst August (IV.)	Head of the House of Hanover since 1987	-