Georg von Merenberg

Georg Nikolaus Graf von Merenberg (born February 13, 1871 in Wiesbaden ; † May 31, 1948 there ) was one of three children of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm zu Nassau - the half-brother of the last Duke of Nassau and later Grand Duke of Luxembourg , Adolph - and the Countess Natalie von Merenberg, b. Natalia Pushkina (. * May 23 ^{. Jul} / June 4, 1836 ^greg. , † March 10 ^jul. / March 23, 1913 ^greg. ), Daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin . His paternal grandparents were Duke Wilhelm von Nassau and his second wife Princess Pauline von Württemberg . The name Merenberg became known at the beginning of the last century through the political "Merenberg Affair".

marriage and family

Count Georg Nikolaus von Merenberg was with Princess Olga Alexandrovna Jurjewskaja (* November 8, 1873 - August 10, 1925) - the daughter of the Russian Tsar Alexander II and his second wife Katharina Dolgorukaja , to whom he had bestowed the title of Princess Jurjewski -, married.

The couple had the following children:

1. Alexander Nicolas Adolph Michel Georges Graf von Merenberg (1896–1897)

2. Georg Graf von Merenberg (born October 16, 1897 in Hanover; † January 11, 1965 in Mainz)

⚭ January 7, 1926 in Budapest Paulette von Koyer de Györgyo-Szent-Miklossy, divorced July 13, 1928,

⚭ July 27, 1940 in Schroda Elisabeth Anne Müller-Uri (* July 1, 1903 in Wiesbaden; † November 18, 1963 Wiesbaden)

Daughter from 2nd marriage:

Clotilde Elisabeth Countess von Merenberg, married. von Rintelen (born May 14, 1941 in Wiesbaden)

⚭ May 25, 1965 in Wiesbaden Enno von Rintelen (born November 9, 1921 in Berlin)

Children from this marriage:

Alexander Enno von Rintelen (born March 23, 1966 in Wiesbaden)

Nikolaus von Rintelen (born June 29, 1970 in Wiesbaden)

⚭ June 30, 2007 Olivia Minninger (born August 27, 1969 in Cologne)

Children from this marriage:

Julian von Rintelen (born January 7, 2003 in Munich)

Nicolai von Rintelen (born November 17, 2006 in Munich)

Gregor von Rintelen (born August 13, 1972 in Wiesbaden)

⚭ 2002 Jane Countess zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg- Rheda-Prill (born May 18, 1973 in Wiesbaden)

Child from this marriage:

Frederick von Rintelen (born December 11, 2006)

3. Olga Katharina Adda Countess von Merenberg (born October 3, 1898 in Wiesbaden; † September 15, 1983 in Bottmingen near Basel), ⚭ November 14, 1923 in Wiesbaden Count Michael Loris-Melikow (born June 16, 1900 in Tsarskoe Selo; † October 2, 1980 in Bottmingen)

Since there are no more male descendants and the female descendants have taken on other names, the aristocratic name "Graf or Countess von Merenberg" no longer exists. He can only be mentioned as an additional nobility name.

The case (affair) Merenberg

Before the First World War , there was a highly political case within the Walram line in the House of Nassau . The dispute was fought with fierce passion and by all means by the opposing parties, the plaintiff Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm von Nassau and later his son Count Georg Nikolaus von Merenberg and the defendant Grand Duke Adolph I of Luxembourg and later his son Wilhelm IV of Luxembourg . The argument became known as the "Merenberg Affair". Expert opinions, press campaigns, intrigues and allegations, court actions and parliamentary debates were among the rules of the game in this case. It was about the throne of a - albeit small - European state and a lot of money.

prehistory

Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm von Nassau (* September 20, 1832 - September 17, 1905), the father of Georg Nikolaus, was on behalf of his half-brother, the then ruling Duke Adolph von Nassau, in 1856 at the Russian Tsar's court as a representative of Nassau at the coronation ceremonies of Tsar Alexander II. There he met Natalia Alexandrovna (April 4, 1836, † March 23, 1913), the daughter of the important Russian poet Pushkin. She was unhappily married to one of the Tsar's wing adjutants, General Michail Leontiewitsch von Dubelt - with whom she had three children. In 1867 she left her family overnight to follow Prince Nicholas of Nassau to his homeland.

marriage and family

The head of the House of Nassau, Duke Adolph, did not give an impending marital union the necessary dispensation - which, however, did not change anything about the marriage. After the divorce on May 18, 1868, Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm arranged for his brother-in-law, Georg Viktor von Waldeck-Pyrmont , to give his future wife a title of German nobility. This title of "Countess von Merenberg" was bestowed on her and her biological children on June 30, 1868. The wedding followed on July 1, 1868. The resulting morganatic marriage meant that Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm lost his possible entitlement to the throne, and that his wife and children were not allowed to use the title Prince or Princess of Nassau. At first, Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm was not particularly upset about it, as there could hardly be any consequences under inheritance law. After all, the Duchy of Nassau between Main, Rhine, Lahn and Sieg was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia as part of the Hesse-Nassau Province in 1866 after a lost war . Duke Adolph was still head of the house, but lived "without a land" in exile. The couple had their daughter Sophie in 1868 , their daughter Alexandra in 1869 and their son Georg Nikolaus in 1871.

The litigation

After his half-brother, Duke Adolph von Nassau, inherited the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg from the Ottonian line of the House of Nassau in accordance with the regulations of the Nassau Hereditary Association , Prince Nikolaus wanted to secure the future for himself and his children. He was now very active in order to obtain a supposed entitlement - since the heir to the throne, Adolph's son Wilhelm, “only” had four daughters and the line in the male line threatened to die out. Prince Nikolaus declared even then that as the last survivor of the line, he would voluntarily renounce all rights to the crown if the name and dignity of the House of Nassau were given to him in a male " descent ". Thus, the Counts and Countesses of Merenberg could have carried the title Duke and Dukes of Nassau. Adolf refused to do this, however, as the offspring would come from an unequal connection. Until Adolf's death it remained unclear why this marriage was unequal for him. There are two theses: • There could have been doubts about the actual divorce, because a divorce certificate could not be obtained, or • For Adolph, the noble house from which Natalie Pushkin came was not ranked high enough.

Minister of State Eyschen said that the Grand Duke might be blocking the possibility of inheritance for his own descendants by refusing to act. Grand Duke Adolph is said to have said at the time: "Providence will decide". When Prince Nikolaus von Nassau died in 1905, he had not got very far with his request. Up until then he had not been able to break the resistance of his half-brother. Shortly after him, Grand Duke Adolph of Luxembourg also died. Georg von Merenberg, the son of the late Prince Nikolaus von Nassau, now 34 years old, followed in his father's footsteps and now, in his struggle for the Luxembourg crown, grappled with Grand Duke Wilhelm of Luxembourg, the son of the late Grand Duke Adolph .

There were three legal opinions at the time: 1. Prof. Dr. Zöpfl and Prof. Dr. Rehm said that Georg von Merenberg had no rights, since his father's marriage was not equal and the head of the house, Duke Adolphs, did not agree that it was morganatic. 2. This opinion was also shared by the government, based on an opinion by the Council of State. 3. Judicial Councilor Max Silberstein, commissioned expert of Count Georg Nikolaus von Merenberg, did not share these views and claimed that his client, according to the Nassau inheritance contract, was the last male descendant to take precedence over the "cognates", i.e. female succession.

Based on the legal opinion of Max Silberstein, Count Georg Nikolaus von Merenberg sued a German court for the right of disposal over the Nassau property and asserted his claims to the throne. He also addressed the parliament and government in Luxembourg and asserted his claims to the throne there. He received approval from the socialist faction of the regional chamber, which, however, was less concerned with the claims of the “Merenberger” than with the weakening of the dynasty. Grand Duke Wilhelm therefore wanted to build the line of succession on a “broad foundation” for his children and arranged for the succession to remain in the Grand Duke's family by amending the Nassau House Law and for the Nassau house assets to be united with the crown of the Grand Duchy.

The consequences

On July 5, 1907, the Luxembourg Chamber voted 41 to 7 for the Nassau house law, which stipulated that the succession to the throne would be hereditary in the Wilhelms family and that the Nassau household assets would be inseparably linked to the crown of Luxembourg. This finally secured the succession to the throne through his daughters. Georg von Merenberg had to bury all his hopes and the name Merenberg disappeared again from the headlines of the "big politics".

After Georg von Merenberg had withdrawn his lawsuit before the Wiesbaden court, the case was finally “shelved”. The Luxembourg court honored this behavior and agreed to grant the adversary, who had been so stubborn until then, an annual pension of 40,000 gold marks. Georg von Merenberg continued to benefit from this donation for a very long time because he only died in 1948 at the age of 77. Until then he had received “pensions” totaling around 1,600,000 “gold marks, or subsequent currencies”.

literature

• Christian Spielmann: History of the city and the rule of Weilburg , new edition 2005.
• Hans von Frisch: The rights of Count Georg von Merenberg to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , Verlag E. Wertheim 1907.
• Jean Schoos: The Dukes of Nassau as Grand Dukes of Luxembourg , Nassauische Annalen 95, 1984.
• ders .: 175 years of rule of the House of Nassau - 100 years of national dynasty , article in: 150 Joer onofhangeg 25 Joer Grand-Duc-Jean - Chef vun eisem Land, Edition Saint-Paul.
• Pierre Even: Duke Adolph von Nassau and the Russian tsarist house , Bad Emser Hefte No. 75, Association for History / Monument and Landscape Management e. V Bad Ems 1989.
• Francois Mersch: Luxembourg - His Dynasty , Volume I + II, Edition Francois Mersch, Luxembourg 1981.

Web links

Commons : Merenberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the municipality of Merenberg
• Merenberg castle ruins - a facility of the State Palaces and Gardens Administration of Hesse