Heinrich Borwin of Mecklenburg

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Heinrich Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg 1916

Heinrich Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg [-Schwerin] (born December 16, 1885 in Venice , † November 3, 1942 in Sárszentmihály, Székesfehérvár small area ; full name: Heinrich Borwin Albrecht Hugo Joseph Paul ) was a member of the Grand Ducal House of Mecklenburg and an officer in Mecklenburg .

Life

Heinrich Borwin was born as the fourth child of Duke Paul Friedrich (1852–1923) and his wife, the Austrian Princess Marie von Windisch-Graetz (1856–1929). The young duke served, like his father before, as a lieutenant in the Hussar Regiment "von Zieten" (Brandenburgisches) No. 3 ( Zieten - Hussars ) in Rathenow and completed his military service as a cavalryman here. He apparently caused a lot of problems, which led to the end of his military career. However, he was appointed lieutenant à la suite with the 2nd Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 18 . With effect from April 14, 1908, at the request of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV , he was incapacitated, as his parents had previously done in 1906. He then went abroad, to England , France and the USA . In 1914, Duke Borwin lived in Arizona near the Mexican border, where he caught wild horses as a cowboy . He liked this life surprisingly well. The outbreak of the First World War tore him from this idyll.

Heinrich Borwin was supposed to return to Germany. According to reports from the German embassy in Washington, DC , he was probably in Caracas . He managed to get him to San Francisco , where he initially stayed. Franz von Papen , who at the time was a military attaché dealing with Heinrich Borwin's plans to travel home, said the Duke should stay there. I do not believe that the fatherland loses much in him. While his contemporaries fell by the tens of thousands on the battlefields of the First World War, Borwin - completely turned towards life - walked on free feet again. He had discovered an American widow who could relieve his chronic financial straits. In 1915 he married; but at the same time he was preparing his crossing, which would take him to Kristiansand on a Norwegian steamer . From there it went to Oslo and then via Trelleborg to Germany. Johann zur Plassow ( pseudonym of Eberhard von Puttkamer (1869–1930)) published a report of this crossing, which was expanded in terms of propaganda and poetry and which was supposed to tell of the Duke's high patriotic spirit and daring boldness, in 1916 under the title His Highness - the Coal Trimmer : the war trip home of Duke Heinrich Borwin of Mecklenburg , for which Julius Gipkens designed the title and which was also translated into Finnish and Swedish.

After his return, his incapacitation was lifted on September 14, 1915 and Heinrich Borwin was assigned as a lieutenant to the 2nd Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 18 to serve in the field. At the beginning of 1916 he was promoted to first lieutenant .

His second marriage ended in divorce in 1921, and he married a third time that year, this time not a daughter from a wealthy family. In 1925 he found himself again in an “extremely pressing emergency”, lived off the sale of his wife's jewelry and said that soon all he would have to do was “open the gas tap”. Duke Heinrich Borwin spent the last years of his life in Hungary . It was here that he suffered his “equestrian death” in November 1942. Heinrich Borwin zu Mecklenburg died on November 3, 1942 in Sárszentmihály. He was 56 years old.

Marriages

Heinrich Borwin married three times. On June 15, 1911, in Dover , he married the 51-year-old Elisabeth Pratt-Tibbits (born January 27, 1860 in New York , † September 14, 1929 in Berg ), a wealthy American. Her net worth amounted to over $ 10 million. The marriage was divorced in Rostock in 1913.

1915 married Duke Borwin in New York City the 35-year-old Lily Martin (Natalie Oelrichs) (born October 12, 1880 in Cheyenne; † February 13, 1931 in San Francisco ), the daughter of the mining magnate and banker Charles May Oelrichs and sister of Blanche Oelrichs . Her family, along with the Astors and Vanderbilts, belonged to the top of American society, and her late husband was a well-known polo player. A few years later, in June 1921, the marriage ended in divorce.

On November 5, 1921, he married Carola Schmitz, born in Rome, who had just recently been divorced. von Alers (born September 3, 1882 in Wiesbaden , † September 27, 1974 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ). While this third marriage turned out to be more harmonious, it was not a wise choice materially.

Awards

Like all princes of the grand ducal house, Heinrich Borwin was holder of the Grand Cross of the House Order of the Wendish Crown with the crown in ore and the chain of orders as well as the Grand Cross of the Order of the Griffin . Probably for his successful return from the USA in 1915, he received the Iron Cross 2nd Class.

literature

  • Johann zur Plassow: His Highness - the coal trimmer. The war trip home of Duke Heinrich Borwin of Mecklenburg. Scherl, Berlin 1916.
( Digitized version ) of the copy from the Berlin State Library
Finnish edition: Hänen ylhäisyytensä hiilenkantajana: Mecklenburgin herttua Heinrich Borwinin seikkailurikas kotimatka Arizonasta. Helsinki: Minerva 1917.
Swedish edition: Hans Höghet kollämparen. Lindblad 1917.
  • Bernd Kasten : The blackest sheep in the family. Duke Borwin of Mecklenburg (1885–1942). In: Ders .: Prince Schnaps. Black sheep in the Princely House of Mecklenburg. Hinstorff Verlag , Rostock 2009. ISBN 3-356-01334-3 , pp. 76-88.
  • Bernd Kasten: Friedrich Franz III., Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In: Biographical Lexicon for Mecklenburg. Vol. 6. Rostock 2011. ISBN 978-3-7950-3750-5 .
  • Jürgen Borchert : Mecklenburg's Grand Dukes. 1815-1918. Demmler Verlag, Schwerin 1992. ISBN 3-910150-14-4 .
  • Viola Maier: The Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1856–1929). In: Julia K. Koch, Eva-Maria Mertens (Ed.): A lady between 500 gentlemen. Johanna Mestorf, work and effect. Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Kasten: Prince Schnaps. Black sheep in the Princely House of Mecklenburg. Rostock 2009, p. 76.
  2. ↑ Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin State Calendar 1908, p. 3.
  3. ^ Supplement to the government gazette of April 23, 1908.
  4. ↑ Bernd Kasten: Prince Schnaps. Black sheep in the Princely House of Mecklenburg. Rostock 2009, p. 81.
  5. ↑ Report of May 12, 1915, quoted by Johannes Reiling: Deutschland, Safe for Democracy? German-American Relations. Stuttgart: Steiner 1997, ISBN 978-3-515-07213-7 , p. 149 f.
  6. ↑ Bernd Kasten, op.cit., P. 82.
  7. ↑ Preface, p. 8 ( digitized version )
  8. ^ Government gazette for the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Official Supplement No. 93 of September 18, 1915
  9. ^ State calendar 1916, p. 579.
  10. ^ Government Gazette for Mecklenburg-Schwerin 1916, p. 220.
  11. ↑ Bernd Kasten: Prince Schnaps. Black sheep in the Princely House of Mecklenburg . Rostock 2009, p. 87.
  12. ↑ Bernd Kasten, op.cit., P. 88.
  13. ↑ Bernd Kasten, op.cit., P. 79.
  14. ^ Heinrich Borwin Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on thepeerage.com , accessed on August 12, 2015. For the annulment of the marriage, see Eugenio Pacelli: Critical Edition of the Nunciature Reports [1]
  15. ↑ Bernd Kasten: Prince Schnaps. Black sheep in the Princely House of Mecklenburg. Rostock 2009, p. 82.
  16. ↑ Bernd Kasten, op.cit., P. 87.
  17. ↑ Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin State Calendar 1908, p. 3.
  18. ↑ See the portrait photo
personal data
SURNAME Heinrich Borwin of Mecklenburg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heinrich Borwin Albrecht Hugo Joseph Paul Herzog zu (full name); Mecklenburg, Heinrich Borwin Albrecht Hugo Joseph Paul Herzog zu (wrong name form)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Member of the grand ducal house of Mecklenburg and Mecklenburg officer
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1942
Place of death Sárszentmihály, Székesfehérvár small area