Frederick VIII (Denmark)

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Frederick VIII, King of Denmark (photo, 1909). Motto: The Lord is my helper

Friedrich VIII (completely Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Karl von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , Danish Frederik 8 .; born  June 3,  1843 in Copenhagen ; † May 14, 1912 in Hamburg , German Empire ) was King of Denmark from 1906 to 1912 .

Life

Friedrich (Danish Christian Frederik Vilhelm Carl ), from the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (branch line House Oldenburg ), was the eldest son of King Christian IX. and his wife, Denmark's heiress, Princess Louise , daughter of the titular Landgrave Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel-Rumpenheim . His younger brother was George I of Greece. Friedrich is not only a direct ancestor of the current Danish monarch Margrethe II , but also, through his son Haakon VII, the direct ancestor of the current King of Norway Harald V.

The young prince first studied political science in Oxford . Friedrich, who was still interested in science, art and culture, later received extensive military training. As can be seen in the biography of his brother George I of Greece, the two princes went through an officer career in the Royal Danish Navy . As Crown Prince of Denmark he took part formally, as a lieutenant in North Jutland, in the German-Danish War of 1864 against Austria and Prussia and later became Inspector General of the Danish Army. He became a leading member of the Danish Order of Freemasons and later increasingly helped with government duties.

After 43 years as Crown Prince, he ascended the Danish throne after the death of his father in 1906. In contrast to his father, Friedrich was a liberal ruler who was inclined to the new parliamentary system.

Marriage and offspring

Friedrich with Louise (1869)

On July 28, 1869, he married the Swedish Princess Louise Josephine Eugenie (1851–1926), daughter of King Charles XV, in Stockholm . of Sweden and Norway and his wife Princess Luise of Orange-Nassau . The bride and groom took Charlottenlund Palace , located away from the courtly Amalienborg , as their summer residence, where some of their four sons and four daughters were born:

Circumstances of death

The grave of Frederick VIII and his wife Louise, Princess of Sweden-Norway, in Roskilde Cathedral

After a stay in Nice , King Frederick VIII was on his way back to Copenhagen with his wife and four children. They made a stopover in Hamburg on May 13, 1912, where Friedrich rented a room in the Hotel Hamburger Hof on Jungfernstieg under the pseudonym "Graf Kronsborg" . On the following evening of May 14, 1912, he left the hotel alone and incognito for an evening stroll. According to the official police report, Friedrich collapsed in the street on Gänsemarkt , was picked up there by two doormen of a café and taken to the harbor hospital by a police officer . There, death was found due to a heart attack . Since nobody knew about him and he had no papers with him, Friedrich was taken to the city morgue, where the corpse was not identified until the next morning by the hotel manager, who had had it looked for.

Since the place on Gänsemarkt, where Friedrich was found, was only a few meters away from a well-known noble brothel on Schwiegerstrasse (today: Kalkhof, between Großer Theaterstrasse and Colonnaden), the newspapers at the time assumed a hushed up scandal. Several extra sheets appeared and reported on the embarrassing situation for the royal family. Later, stories of a woman made the rounds in whose arms the king is said to have died in the brothel and who is said to have dragged him to the goose market to save his family the embarrassment of the place where he was found. Whether the king actually visited a brothel shortly before his death and died there, however, could not be clearly established. The police inspector in charge of the case gave an interview to the Danish newspaper Politiken on May 31, 1912, in which he stated that he was “unable to provide any further clarification as the police decided to investigate the results out of fear to hurt the Danish royal family, not to make it public ”.

Friedrich's corpse was brought to Travemünde on May 16, 1912 in a special train that was ceremoniously equipped , from where the coffin was loaded onto the royal yacht Dannebrog , which brought it back to Denmark. He was buried in Roskilde Cathedral, near Copenhagen .

Honors

The Crown Prince Frederiks Bro near Frederikssund is named after him.

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Friedrich Karl Ludwig of Schleswig-Holstein (1757–1816)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Friedrich Wilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein (1785–1831)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Friederike von Schlieben (1757–1827)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christian IX King of Denmark (1818–1906)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Karl of Hessen-Kassel (1744–1836)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Luise Karoline of Hessen-Kassel (1789–1867)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Louise of Denmark (1750-1831)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frederick VIII King of Denmark
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel (Rumpenheim) (1747–1837)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wilhelm of Hesse (Rumpenheim) (1787–1867)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Karoline Polyxene of Nassau-Usingen (1762–1823)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Louise of Hesse (1817–1898)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Friedrich Hereditary Prince of Denmark (1753–1805)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Louise Charlotte of Denmark (1789–1864)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sophie Friederike von Mecklenburg (1758–1794)
 
 
 
 
 
 

See also

Fiction

  • Dietmar Bittrich: The king in the brothel . In: ders .: Hamburger Liebschaften. Three stories . Svato, Hamburg, 2000, ISBN 3-924283-56-7 .

literature

  • Otto Andrup, Hans Bølling: Danmarks Kong fra Christian I til Christian X . Udsendt af Nationaltidende 1944–45: p. 36 f.
  • Erik Kjersgaard: A History of Denmark . Issued by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Copenhagen 1974; P. 60 ff.
  • Ludwig Schubert, Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert : Europe's royal houses , 5th edition, Vgs, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-8025-2546-9 .

Web links

Commons : Frederick VIII (Denmark)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. See Kjersgaard p. 67.
  2. Mysterious monarch death: The Danish king and the prostitutes on one day from May 11, 2012.
  3. Denmark: From the Vikings to the Modern Monarchy in Das Erste from March 23, 2011.
  4. a b Death came with sex in the daily newspaper of March 10, 2003.
predecessor Office successor
Christian IX King of Denmark
1906–1912
Christian X.