Ernst Heinrich of Saxony
Ernst Heinrich von Sachsen , (full name: Ernst Heinrich Ferdinand Franz Joseph Otto Maria Melchiades Prince of Saxony ; * December 9, 1896 in Dresden , † June 14, 1971 in Neckarhausen ) was the youngest son of the last Saxon King Friedrich August III. and his wife Luise of Austria-Tuscany . From 1923 to 1945 he was head of administration of the “ Haus Wettin - Albertinische Linie e. V. "
Life
Ernst Heinrich spent his childhood in Dresden, Pillnitz and Moritzburg . The boy said the loss of his mother, who left her husband and children in 1902, did not shake the boy.
First World War
With the outbreak of the First World War, Ernst Heinrich served as first lieutenant in the Leib Grenadier Regiment of the Saxon Army . In September 1914 he became an orderly officer in the General Command of the XIX. (II. Royal Saxon) Army Corps near Reims and Lille . During a four-month leave from the front in 1916, he graduated from high school with a good grade, then served in the staff of 2nd Reserve Division No. 24 in the Battle of the Somme . On August 30, 1918, Ernst Heinrich received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry for his services during the battle . In the spring of 1917 he took over the leadership of the 9th Company of the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 104 in Brzezany (East Galicia). After a two-month hospital stay, the prince received command of the 9th battery of the Saxon Field Artillery Regiment No. 115 in the Ypres area at the end of 1917 . From May 1918 he led the 1st Squadron of the Guard Reiter Regiment (1st Heavy Regiment) in Stary Bychow on the Dnieper in Belarus and in August 1918 visited the Saxon troops in Dorpat , Reval and Finland. In November and December 1918, Ernst Heinrich directed the retreat of the troops under his command back home.
During the Weimar Republic
In 1919 and 1920 Ernst Heinrich learned how to run an estate in Silesia. During the Kapp Putsch in March 1920, he acted as a liaison between the putschists in Berlin and the Reichswehr in Breslau, and after the failure, he moved to Munich. There he joined the circle of the former Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht and married Sophie von Luxemburg (* February 14, 1902; † May 24, 1941), a sister of the Luxembourg Grand Duchess Charlotte , on April 12, 1921 , in Nymphenburg Palace . The three sons Dedo (* May 9, 1922 in Munich; † December 6, 2009 in Radebeul), Timo (* December 22, 1923 in Munich; † April 22, 1982 in Emden) and Gero (* 12. September 1925 in Munich; † April 10, 2003 in Picton, Ontario, Canada).
Ernst Heinrich did not take part in the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch of 8/9 November 1923 in Munich. He consistently rejected the National Socialist movement from the start and publicly distanced himself from Ludendorff and Adolf Hitler . At his father's request, he took on the role of head of administration in the Haus Wettin - Albertinische Linie e. V. He also received general power of attorney from his father to negotiate with the Free State of Saxony about the future use of the Wettin goods and art treasures. Ernst Heinrich then played a key role in drafting the contract of June 25, 1925, which, in addition to the law of July 9, 1924, regulated the settlement between the House of Wettin and the Free State of Saxony . In the years that followed, the enthusiastic art lover made several trips to Egypt with his wife and children.
Ernst Heinrich approached Gustav Stresemann politically in 1928/29. Stresemann wanted to win the son of the last Saxon king as a candidate of the German People's Party (DVP) for the office of Reich President . Since his election as Reich President seemed hopeless to him, Ernst Heinrich renounced his candidacy.
During the National Socialism
The coming to power of the Nazis on 30 January 1933 rejected Ernst Heinrich. However, he did not succeed in properly understanding the political situation. He believed in the political resistance of the conservatives against Hitler and therefore entered the Stahlhelm in the spring of 1933 in the deceptive hope of evading the influence of the National Socialists. On July 1, 1934, he was arrested as a result of the Röhm Putsch and interned for five days in the Hohnstein concentration camp.
Ernst Heinrich then lived in seclusion at Moritzburg Castle. The passionate hunter maintained mandatory contacts there with Nazi greats such as Hermann Göring , who as Reichsjägermeister examined the forests of the Wettins, or the Reich governor of Saxony Martin Mutschmann . In 1938 he received the Romanian King Carol II at Moritzburg Castle and in 1939 the former Mayor of Leipzig and later resistance fighter Goerdeler for extensive political talks. A few weeks before the start of the Second World War, Ernst Heinrich was drafted into Abwehr IV in Dresden. In 1943 he publicly questioned the accidental death of his brother Georg . He was then arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo . However, he was spared further personal consequences of his statements directed against the Nazi regime; The National Socialists still shied away from confrontation with a member of a former German royal family.
Ernst Heinrich was an admirer of Käthe Kollwitz's art . After the artist was bombed out in Nordhausen in 1943 and was homeless, he made it possible for her to move to Moritzburg. Käthe Kollwitz lived and worked until her death in April 1945 on the "Rüdenhof" in the immediate vicinity of the castle.
Ernst Heinrich von Sachsen experienced the bombing of Dresden on 13/14. February 1945 in the immediate vicinity and in March 1945 fled to Sigmaringen from the advancing Red Army . Before that, however, he and his sons buried valuables packed in boxes in the palace gardens (see Treasure of the Saxons ). Much of it was found and transported away by the Russian occupiers, some works of art were only discovered and dug up again in 1995.
post war period
The widower married the actress Gina Dulon (1910–2002) in 1947 , who has since been known as Virginia von Sachsen . At the end of the same year he bought the Coolamber estate in County Westmeath in Ireland and shortly afterwards moved to Ireland with his second wife and sons from his first marriage. The refugee had received the funds for this from the French state, to which he sold a reliquary crown in 1947, which St. King Louis IX. donated by France in 1255 to the Dominican convent in Liège , which was demolished during the French Revolution and which had been acquired by the Wettins in 1802 and taken along by the prince on the run. After initial difficulties, Ernst Heinrich became an enthusiastic and successful farmer and quickly learned to appreciate his new home and its people and culture. He died in Neckarhausen during a visit to Germany. He never saw his home Saxony again after 1945.
ancestors
| Pedigree of Ernst Heinrich of Saxony | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great-great-grandparents |
Maximilian von Sachsen (1759–1838) |
King |
Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld (1785–1851) |
King |
Grand Duke |
King |
King |
Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon (1778–1820) |
| Great grandparents |
King John of Saxony (1801–1873) |
King Ferdinand II of Portugal (1816–1885) |
Grand Duke Leopold II (1797–1870) |
Duke Charles III. (1823–1854) |
||||
| Grandparents |
King George of Saxony (1832–1904) |
Grand Duke Ferdinand IV (1835–1908) |
||||||
| parents |
King Friedrich August III. (1865–1932) |
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|
Ernst Heinrich of Saxony |
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literature
- Albert Herzog zu Sachsen : The Wettins in life pictures. Styria publishing house. Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-222-12301-2 .
- Georg Kretschmann: The silver of the Wettins. A treasure hunt between Moscow and New York . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-86153-088-0 .
Works
- My path in life from the royal castle to the farm. 4th edition. Verlag der Kunst Dresden, Husum 2010, ISBN 978-3-86530-015-7 .
- My hunting book. Publisher: List Paul Verlag, year of publication: 1982, ISBN 978-3-471-78407-5 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Ernst Heinrich von Sachsen in the catalog of the German National Library
- This is how Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony lived . In: Die Welt , May 24, 2002.
Individual evidence
- ^ Saxony. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Person Page. In: thepeerage.com. Retrieved April 30, 2016 .
- ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736–1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation. Dresden 1937. p. 559.
- Jump up ↑ Coole, County Westmeath at Wikipedia
- ^ The Crown of Liège in the Louvre
- ↑ Trial of the legacy of the Wettin BILD from December 2, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Saxony, Ernst Heinrich von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Saxony, Ernst Heinrich Prince of |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wettiner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 9, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 14, 1971 |
| Place of death | Neckarhausen |