Franz of Bavaria

Franz Duke of Bavaria ( OESSH Munich 2012)

Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern (born July 14, 1933 in Munich ) has been the head of the House of Wittelsbach , the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria , since 1996 . Until 1996 he was known under the name Franz Prinz von Bayern and with the death of his father changed his name to Franz Herzog von Bayern in succession, as his father had already called himself.

Life

Franz von Bayern is the oldest son of Albrecht von Bayern (1905–1996) and his first wife, Countess Maria Drašković von Trakošćan (1904–1969). He is the great-grandson of the last Bavarian King Ludwig III. Together with his sisters, the twins Marie Gabriele and Marie Charlotte (* 1931), and his younger brother Max Emanuel (* 1937), he grew up in Munich, Croatia and Hungary . In October 1944, his father was arrested by the Gestapo and held prisoner together with Franz, who was only 11 at the time, and other family members in the Sachsenhausen , Flossenbürg and Dachau concentration camps . After the war he attended the humanistic grammar school in the Benedictine monastery Ettal (1952) and studied business administration at the universities of Munich and Zurich . He then did a commercial apprenticeship in an iron shop in Hamburg .

Since the death of his father in 1996, Franz has been the head of the Wittelsbach family. The respective head of the House of Wittelsbach appoints the board members of the Foundation Wittelsbach Compensation Fund , in which 1,923 most possessions from the former family possessions - Fideikommiss were introduced the Wittelsbach, including art treasures and collections (especially the art collection of King Ludwig I , mostly in the elderly and Neue Pinakothek and in the Glyptothek in Munich), the Geheime Hausarchiv (today a department of the Bavarian main state archive ) and the Schlösser Berg , Hohenschwangau (including the Museum of the Bavarian Kings ), Berchtesgaden , Grünau and Sandersdorf . He also appoints one of the board members of the Wittelsbach State Foundation for Art and Science , into which in 1923 the art treasures of the Wittelsbach family acquired before 1800 were brought. The “boss of the house” also has many representative tasks in the country.

Franz Duke of Bavaria , oil on canvas, painting by Dieter Stein

In addition to the natural sciences, he is particularly interested in art. He brought his own important art collection with early works by Joseph Beuys , Georg Baselitz and Blinky Palermo as well as numerous contemporary German painters such as Jörg Immendorff and Sigmar Polke to the Pinakothek der Moderne and the State Graphic Collection in Munich . He is chairman of the association for the promotion of the Alte Pinakothek , deputy chairman of the gallery association Munich, member of the board of trustees of the association of friends and patrons of the Glyptothek and Antikensammlungen Munich, honorary president of the circle of friends of the Egyptian collection Munich, member of the board of trustees of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich , the Board of Trustees of the University of Philosophy and the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Bavarian History and Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Eugen Biser Foundation . In 2009 he left his extensive private library on art of the 20th and 21st centuries to the Central Institute for Art History in Munich. In 2003 he was the first European to receive the Duncan Phillips Award from the Washington art museum Phillips Collection for decades of sponsorship , which has been given to collectors and donors who support museums since 1999. Because of his extraordinary understanding of art, he became chairman of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City .

As head of the house, he is the Grand Master of the Wittelsbach House Order , the House Knight Order of St. George . He also awards the House Knight Order of St. Hubertus and the Order of Theresa . He is an honorary member of the Marian Men's Congregation of the Annunciation at the Bürgersaal in Munich, founded in 1610 . The Aid Association Nymphenburg e. V. he supports in his charitable work u. a. in Romania, Albania and African countries. He is also the patron of the Nymphenburg Talks , a platform for intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

The childless bachelor lives secluded in a wing of the Nymphenburg Palace , in which he was born. His country seat is Berg Castle .

The Wittelsbach family receives around 14 million euros in payments from the income of the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund. Franz von Bayern receives by far the largest individual share.

Since Franz Herzog von Bayern has no children, his successor as head of the house is to be passed on to his brother Max Emanuel Herzog in Bavaria ; since this also has no male descendants, the descendants of the third son of King Ludwig III. follow: Luitpold Prince of Bavaria , this in turn his first-born son Ludwig Heinrich Prince of Bavaria (* 1982).

Traditional names and predicates

The title "Duke of Bavaria, Franconia and Swabia, Count Palatine near Rhine " is still used traditionally for the head of the family, but does not correspond to the official name. The predicate " Royal Highness (KH) " or "His Royal Highness (SKH)" placed in front of the name is also still used in the social environment, but is also a pure form of politeness without legal relevance.

Succession to the throne of the Jacobites

Franz von Bayern is a distant descendant of the Stuarts . The Jacobites , who do not recognize the deposition of Jacob II and the subsequent change in the right to succession to the throne through the Glorious Revolution of 1689, have regarded Franz as a pretender for the British throne since the death of his father Albrecht and refer to him as “Francis II, King of England , Scotland , Ireland and France ”. However, he never publicly claimed this title himself.

Prince Charles , on the occasion of a visit to Franz in Nymphenburg in 1987, asked by reporters about his claim to the throne, replied jokingly that this claim was probably better than his own. Due to his childlessness, his brother Max Emanuel is also his successor in the Jacobite succession list. Thereafter, this title would pass to Max Emanuel's eldest daughter Sophie , who married into the House of Liechtenstein .

ancestors

Pedigree Franz Duke of Bavaria
Great-great-grandparents	Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria (1821–1912) ⚭ 1844 Auguste Ferdinande of Austria (1825–1864)	Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este (1821–1849) ⚭ 1847 Elisabeth Franziska Maria of Austria (1831–1903)	Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria (1808–1888) ⚭ 1828 Ludovika Wilhelmine of Bavaria (1808–1892)	King Michael of Portugal (1802–1866) ⚭ 1851 Adelheid von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1831–1909)	Count Karl Draskovich von Trakostjan (1807–1855) ⚭ 1841 Elisabeth Batthyány -Strattmann von Németújvár (1820–1882)	Count Dionys Festetics von Tolna (1813–1891) ⚭ 1842 Karolina Zichy von Zich and Vásonykeö (1820–1906)	Prince Wilhelm Albrecht von Montenuovo (1821–1895) ⚭ 1850 Juliane Batthyány-Strattmann von Némétujvár (1827–1871)	Prince Ferdinand Bonaventura Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau (1834–1904) ⚭ 1856 Maria von und zu Liechtenstein (1835–1905)
Great grandparents	King Ludwig III. (1845–1921) ⚭ 1868 Marie Therese of Austria-Este (1849–1919)		Duke Carl Theodor in Bavaria (1839–1909) ⚭ 1874 Maria Josepha of Portugal (1857–1943)		Count Paul Draskovich von Trakostjan (1846–1889) ⚭ 1874 Maria Festetics von Tolna (1850–1946)		Prince Alfred von Montenuovo (1854–1927) ⚭ 1879 Franziska Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau (1861–1935)
Grandparents	Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria (1869–1955) ⚭ 1900 Marie Gabriele in Bavaria (1878–1912)				Count Dionys Draskovich von Trakostjan (1875–1909) ⚭ 1903 Juliana von Montenuovo (1880–1961)
parents	Albrecht Duke of Bavaria (1905–1996) ⚭ 1930 Maria Drašković von Trakošćan (1904–1969)
Franz Duke of Bavaria, b. Franz Prince of Bavaria (* 1933)

honors and awards

• Grand Master of the Order of Hubert
• Grand Master of the House Knights Order of St. George
• 1980: Bavarian poet thaler from the Munich tower scribe
• 1996: Honorary member of the Catholic Bavarian Student Union Rhaetia
• 1999: Honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
• 2003: Honorary Senator of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich
• 2004: Grand Crusader of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
• 2008: Honorary doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich
• 2008: Grand Cross of the Pro Merito Melitensi Order of Merit of the Sovereign Order of Malta .
• February 23, 2017: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 2019: Granted honorary citizenship of Munich

literature

• Administration of the Duke of Bavaria (ed.): Genealogy of the House of Wittelsbach. Status: January 1, 1996. Administration of the Duke of Bavaria, Munich 1996.
• Hans Rall , Marga Rall: The Wittelsbacher. From Otto I to Elisabeth I special edition. Tosa et al., Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-85001-485-1 .
• Franz Herzog von Bayern , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 50/2003 of December 1, 2003, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz von Bayern in the catalog of the German National Library
• Send note: Duke Franz von Bayern in conversation with Walter Flemmer in the Alpha-Forum series on BR-alpha ( memento from September 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and direct link to the PDF file of the minutes of the conversation ( memento from January 31, 2012 on the Internet Archives )
• King Francis II (Jacobites)
• haus-bayern.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} The registered name according to an online registration information for Munich ( memento of the original from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in June 2010 Franz is Duke of Bavaria . Since when he has been registered under this name, Wikipedia is unknown. He is therefore likely to have applied for and received a civil name change in accordance with the General Administrative Regulation for the Law on Changing Family Names and First Names (NamÄndVwV) . See also the firstborn title article . 
2. ↑ On the question: “Since 1955 there has been the name 'Duke of Bavaria' again. It's all a little complicated, because there is also a Duke in Bavaria. You yourself were also once a Prince of Bavaria. How is this nomenclature actually to be understood? ”In an interview in the Alpha Forum broadcast by Bayerischer Rundfunk on April 9, 2001 (transcript as PDF; 45 kB) ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), in which he as Duke Franz von Bayern or Duke Franz and when His Royal Highness Duke Franz von Bayern was addressed, Franz Duke of Bavaria explained: “He [his father Albrecht] then decided that he would have the oldest and basically the most distinguished title the family, namely the title 'Duke of Bavaria', used as his name. In his successor, I [Franz] did that too. ”Article 109 of the Weimar Constitution (WRV) of August 11, 1919 stipulates that the public law privileges of birth or status were to be abolished and that titles of nobility may no longer be awarded . At the same time, the previous nobility names were declared part of the official family name. In the case of the main line of the Wittelsbach family, since 1919 all members belonging to this family have had the official surname Prince of Bavaria or Princess of Bavaria . Only the members of the family who had a prominent primogeniture title before 1919 until the nobility privileges were abolished were allowed to keep this as an official name, but from 1919 onwards could no longer pass it on to their descendants.
3. ↑ Do we still need monarchies, Your Royal Highness? Interview evening newspaper of July 12, 2013
4. ↑ Franz Herzog von Bayern in an interview
5. ↑ The honorary members of the Marian Men's Congregation of the Annunciation at the Bürgersaal in Munich ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 7, 2012 
6. ↑ Heirs of the Bavarian kings still collect millions. In: sueddeutsche.de. February 6, 2016, accessed March 26, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Evening newspaper : Prince Ludwig of Bavaria: He would be the next Kini from April 22, 2011 (accessed on May 7, 2011)
8. ↑ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, Volume 50, Princely Houses, Volume IX, Limburg an der Lahn 1971, p. 7
9. ↑ In contrast to the Spanish Prince Louis Alphonse de Bourbon with regard to the - similarly theoretical - French "legitimist" claims to the throne.
10. ↑ bundespraesident.de: award of medals to Franz Duke of Bavaria
11. ↑ muenchen.de: These are the new Munich honorary citizens. Retrieved January 26, 2019 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Albrecht	Head of the Wittelsbach house since 1996	---

predecessor	Office	successor
Albert I.	Jacobite heir as Francis II since 1996	---