Gustav Adolf Hereditary Prince of Sweden
| Hereditary Prince Gustav Adolf | |
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| reign | – |
| predecessor | – |
| wife | Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| children |
Margaretha Birgitta Desiree Christina Carl XVI. gustaf |
| noble house | Bernadotte |
| father | Gustavus VI Adolf |
| mother | Margaret of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Born |
22 April 1906 Stockholm Palace , Stockholm |
| Died |
26 January 1947 Kastrup , Denmark |
| Royal motto | – |
Gustav Adolf ( Swedish Gustaf Adolf , full name Gustaf Adolf Oscar Fredrik Arthur Edmund , known within the Edmund family ; born April 22, 1906 at Stockholm Palace , Stockholm ; † January 26, 1947 at Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport on Zealand , Denmark ). Swedish prince and duke of Västerbotten . He was the son of the later King Gustav VI. Adolf and his first wifeMargaret of Great Britain and Ireland and was the father of the current Swedish King Carl XVI. Gustav .
childhood and adolescence
Gustav Adolf was born on April 22, 1906 at 11:10 p.m. in Stockholm Palace , the eldest son of the then Hereditary Prince Gustav Adolf and his wife Princess Margareta, at the time also the ducal couple of Skåne . The following year his father also became Crown Prince , on the death of King Oscar II , and he was given the title Duke of Västerbotten . Later Gustav Adolf got the siblings Prince Sigvard , Prince Bertil , Prince Carl Johan and Princess Ingrid .
He grew up in the northwest wing of Stockholm Palace, which his mother had modernized. As his mother was English, English became his first language alongside Swedish . He also inherited his interest in sports and social responsibility from his mother. She died unexpectedly when he was 14, and his ladies-in-waiting, Stina Reuterswärd and Stina Stockenström, were given more responsibility for the children. The Prince's father, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, married his second wife, Louise Mountbatten , in 1923 . The loss of his mother hit the prince hard. He fell ill and took a year off from school. During this time he developed a seriousness and shyness, which, in addition to his sense of duty, provided a topic of conversation. After his father's marriage, the family moved to Ulriksdal Castle . Gustav Adolf spent the summers in Sofiero Castle , whose park and flower arrangements his parents had put in order.
In April 1924, Gustav Adolf came of age, and in November of that year he was allowed to serve as regent for the first time , since both his grandfather and father were out of the country.
marriage and family
On June 15, 1932, he became engaged to Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . They were married in a civil ceremony on October 19, 1932 and in a church on October 20 in the Morizkirche in Coburg . They had five children:
- Princess Margaretha Désirée Victoria (born October 31, 1934) ⚭ 1964 John Ambler (1924–2008)
- Princess Birgitta Ingeborg Alice (born January 19, 1937) ⚭ 1961 Johann Georg Prince of Hohenzollern (1932–2016)
- Princess Désirée Elisabeth Sibylla (born June 2, 1938) ⚭ 1964 Freiherr Niclas Silfverschiöld (born 1934)
- Princess Christina Louise Helena (born August 3, 1943) ⚭ 1974 Tord Magnuson (born 1941)
- King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born April 30, 1946) ⚭ 1976 Silvia Sommerlath (born 1943)
The family resided in Haga Castle .
education and honorary positions
Prince Gustav Adolf went to Lundsbergs skola , a boarding school in Värmland , from 1918 to 1924, graduating from Stockholm Palace in 1925 . He then underwent officer training and became a lieutenant in the Svea Livgarde . He then attended war college and became a captain and captain . After that he served in the troops.
He studied political science , constitutional law, German , French and history at Uppsala University with teachers such as Dag Hammarskjöld and Halvar Sundberg . He then went to the business school and studied economics , industrial and social science topics in combination with internships. During a stay in Vienna in 1930 he trained at the Spanish Riding School and at a cavalry school in today's Taborfalva in Hungary.
Among his honorary posts are the chairmanship of the International Committee of Boy Scouts in 1932, the Swedish Olympic Committee, the Swedish Hunters Association and an honorary membership in the Swedish Academy of Sciences .
Sporting achievements
The prince celebrated great successes as a rider. He won the Nordic Equestrian Championships in Oslo in 1929 . He also won numerous obstacle, dressage and show jumping competitions in the years 1929 to 1938. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin he started with the mare Alma in the jumping competition. He belonged to the Swedish elite in fencing with the saber and won the Swedish championship three times each in individual and group competitions. He was also a good skier .
army service
During the years on standby during World War II he was on the Defense Staff; in 1941 and 1942 he was in command of a cavalry battalion in Värmland . Gustav Adolf was considered responsible, sincere, undemanding and conscientious as well as a good employee. He helped draft the Order to Resist in All Situations (1942) and wrote the draft of If War Should Come (1943), which was sent to all Swedish households.
In 1944 he became Chief of Army Staff, which was marked by intensive work in support of voluntary Norwegian and Danish associations in Sweden. He took this work to heart and actively fought for connection and loyalty to the other Nordic nations. As hereditary prince, he had to follow the policy of neutrality that Minister of State Per Albin Hansson had proclaimed at the beginning of the Second World War.
In the years 1938 to 1947 the later exposed spy Stig Wennerström was his adjutant.
relationship with Nazi Germany
According to some authors, Gustav Adolf had a more friendly attitude towards Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler than his father . The journalist Per Svensson described the relationship "certainly pro-German in the sense of feeling sympathy for the old empire". This was "formed in an environment where it was natural to be pro-German". The author Anna-Lena Lodenius , author of several books on National Socialism in Sweden, also thought it obvious that Gustav Adolf and his wife had been friendly towards Germany under Hitler. However, this was not confirmed by the Swedish court. One does not have the feeling that the prince had "outspoken Nazi sympathies".
There are pictures from January 4, 1939 showing the prince in Berlin making a donation to the National Socialist Winter Relief Organization or visiting Hermann Göring in February 1939.
death
On January 26, 1947, Gustav Adolf died in a crash at Kastrup Airport near Copenhagen . He was traveling from Amsterdam to Stockholm in a DC-3 operated by the Dutch airline KLM . After the death was announced, Crown Princess Louise drove to Sibylla in Haga to tell her stepson's wife the bad news.
In his obituary of Gustav Adolf, Major General Carl August Ehrensvärd wrote in the daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on 27 January : “[…] He was a good Swedish man. Honor. Duty. Will. These words characterize him best.” Count Folke Bernadotte said of the deceased in the same newspaper: “He was never too bad for himself, never feared for his dignity, for us he will always be a scout among scouts.”
The funeral service took place on February 4th at Storkyrkan in Stockholm. The procession from there was attended by 100,000 people. Gustav Adolf was buried in Hagapark , the cemetery for the Swedish royal family.
ancestors
| Pedigree of Hereditary Prince Gustav Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten | ||||||||
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| great-great-grandparents |
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Duke |
Grand Duke |
Kaiser |
Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn |
Prince Carl of Prussia |
Duke Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau |
| great grandparents |
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Grand Duke |
Prince |
Prince |
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| grandparents |
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Prince |
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| parents |
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Hereditary Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden (1906–1947) |
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web links
- Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla of Sweden on youtube.com (family photos)
itemizations
- ↑ a b Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Västerbotten at de.royal.myorigins.org, accessed 27 February 2014.
- ↑ a b Gustaf Adolf Oscar Fredrik Artur Edmund >> Bernadotte at historiska-personer.nu, retrieved on February 27, 2014.
- ↑ a b Gustav Adolf at sok.riksarkivet.se, accessed 27 February 2014. (Biography, Swedish)
- ↑ Karin Olsson: Han var med all säkerhet protysk ( Memento des Originals from September 29, 2007 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: Summary. dated March 8, 2006.
- ↑ Hagaparken ( Memento des Originals from February 27, 2014 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. on visithaga.se, accessed 27 February 2014.
| personal data | |
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| SURNAME | Gustav Adolf of Sweden |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gustaf Adolf Oscar Fredrik Arthur Edmund |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish Hereditary Prince and Duke of Västerbotten |
| BIRTH DATE | April 22, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stockholm Palace , Stockholm |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 26, 1947 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | at Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport on Zealand , Denmark |