Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1907-1994)

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Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia (around 1927)
Louis Ferdinand, around 1913
Louis Ferdinand with his wife Kira, 1938
Cadinen manor around 1860, Duncker collection
Handwriting example with signature Louis Ferdinand (1965)

Louis Ferdinand Victor Eduard Adalbert Michael Hubertus Prince of Prussia (born November 9, 1907 in Potsdam , † September 25, 1994 in Bremen ) was head of the House of Hohenzollern from 1951 to 1994 . In this function he ran the family business, was the head of the family and, in the event of the re-establishment of the monarchy, was considered to be the pretender to the Prussian royal and German imperial throne .

Life

Louis Ferdinand was the second eldest son of Wilhelm , Crown Prince of the German Empire and of Prussia , and his wife Cecilie, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . The prince spent a large part of his childhood in Langfuhr near Danzig , where his father commanded the 1st Leibhusar Regiment as commander . On his tenth birthday, Prince Louis Ferdinand was traditionally employed as a lieutenant in the 1st Guards Regiment and received the Order of the Black Eagle from his grandfather . From 1916 his tutor was Carl Kappus .

Louis Ferdinand studied in Berlin economics and was at age 21 with his dissertation theory of immigration on the example of Argentina doctorate . After a long stay abroad in the United States, where he had a liaison with the actress Lili Damita , he returned to Germany in 1933 , due to the fact that his older brother Wilhelm had entered into an unequal marriage and thus lost his right to the throne.

On May 2, 1938, he married Kira Kirillowna Romanowa (1909–1967), daughter of Grand Duke Kyrill Vladimirovich of Russia (head of the Romanov family after 1918 ) and Princess Victoria Melita, born in Potsdam . Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, also Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , former Grand Duchess Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and near the Rhine ( Hesse-Darmstadt ).

In 1940 his older brother Wilhelm fell in the France campaign , which prompted Hitler to issue the so - called Prince's Decree : in future, all members of the House of Hohenzollern were forbidden from military service at the front; this also affected Louis Ferdinand, as a first lieutenant in the air force . From then until the summer of 1944 he managed the private Cadinen estate in East Prussia , the former summer residence of his grandfather.

According to his own statements, Louis Ferdinand had been in contact with the resistance since the end of the 1930s and was also under discussion of becoming head of state of the German Reich after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . Among those involved in the assassination were many monarchists or supporters of the German imperial and Prussian royal houses who intended to return to the monarchy if successful. After the failed coup on July 20, Louis Ferdinand was interrogated by the Gestapo . According to the historian Karina Urbach , however, Louis Ferdinand could hardly be called a resistance.

At the end of the war, Louis Ferdinand first came to Bad Kissingen , until he moved to Bremen in 1947 , where he and his family lived in the Wümmehof in Borgfeld from 1950 . With the death of his father on July 20, 1951, he became head of the House of Hohenzollern (Prussia). Louis Ferdinand left no doubt that he would be available for the office of emperor if the monarchy were restored (see: Monarchists in Germany ).

He led after the German reunification , the reburial of Frederick the Great in 1991 from the Christ Chapel of the Hohenzollern castle in the crypt of Sanssouci . Also in 1991 he applied for compensation for expropriated locks in the former Soviet zone of occupation, after a preliminary decision by the Office for the Settlement of Unresolved Property Issues had approved the application. It was based on an expert opinion by Christopher Clark , who ruled that Wilhelm von Prussia had "not made any significant contribution to National Socialism". When this was criticized in public, the Brandenburg Ministry of Finance stopped the process in order to obtain further expert opinions. According to media reports, these come to the opposite conclusion.

Louis Ferdinand was followed in 1994 by his grandson Georg Friedrich , the son of his third youngest son Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, who died in 1977 .

The urns of Louis Ferdinand, his wife Kira and some of their children are buried in the Russian Orthodox Resurrection Chapel of Hohenzollern Castle.

composer

Louis Ferdinand, like his then famous namesake Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, was also a composer and found recognition for his works. He composed the glockenspiel for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin and the Fridericus Rex memorial march. Above all, he set German poems from the 19th century to music from the Romantic era .

progeny

⚭ 1967–1975 Waltraud Freydag (1940–2010)
⚭ 1976–2003 Honor Guard von Reden (* 1943)
⚭ 2004 Sibylle Kretschmer (* 1952)
⚭ 1966–1982 Jutta Jörn (* 1943)
⚭ 1982 Brigitta von Dallwitz-Wegner (1939–2016)
  • Marie-Cécile Kira Viktoria Luise (* 1942)
⚭ 1965–1989 Friedrich August Herzog von Oldenburg (* 1936)
⚭ 1973–1984 Thomas Frank Liepsner (* 1945)
⚭ 1975 Donata Emma Countess zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (1950–2015)
  • Christian-Sigismund (* 1946)
⚭ 1984 Nina Helene Lydia Alexandra Countess zu Reventlow adH Damp (* 1954)
  • Xenia (1949-1992)
⚭ 1973–1978 Per-Edvard Lithander (1945–2010)

succession

Louis Ferdinand's father, Crown Prince Wilhelm , had stipulated in an inheritance contract with his father, the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II , and his son Louis Ferdinand that any descendant would be excluded from the inheritance who “did not come from one of the principles of the old constitution of Brandenburg- Prussian house corresponding marriage originates or lives in a marriage not in accordance with the house constitution ”. Since Louis Ferdinand's older brother Wilhelm (1906–1940) had married a woman of no equal and had also died in 1940 without leaving any sons, the contract also provided that the entire assets of the Crown Prince (who was also the sole heir of the Emperor) were transferred to Louis Ferdinand Previous heirs and, after his death , should fall to the next eldest son with subsequent heir according to the above provision as subsequent heirs .

Of the four sons of Louis Ferdinand, however, only one of the younger sons, Louis Ferdinand Jr. , married a countess from a mediatized princely house according to house law, while the marriage of the youngest son Christian Sigismund (with a noble countess) was exceptionally recognized by the father as house law, but not the marriages of the two older sons. As the eldest, Frederick William , after the death of his father, a certificate of inheritance as the sole heir of his grandfather, Crown Prince Wilhelm , applied for and the District Court Hechingen initially gave him a right to be heard, complained the only son of his 1977 predeceased younger brother Louis Ferdinand jr. , Georg Friedrich (* 1976) against this decision, since Friedrich Wilhelm, in his opinion, was excluded from the succession according to the inheritance contract due to an unequal marriage.

The Federal Court of Justice ruled on December 2, 1998 (Az .: IV ZB 19/97): “A testator who, for reasons of family tradition, is based on the rank of his family according to the views of the nobility, can for his family originate Legacy will effectively order that the one of his descendants who does not come from an equal marriage or lives in an unequal marriage cannot become his sole successor. "The legal dispute was referred back to the district court so that it could examine which candidates for the Legacy of equality clause sufficed. Louis Ferdinand's second eldest son, Michael , lodged a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court against this judgment . The Federal Court of Justice thereupon overturned the judgment of the Federal Court of Justice by decision of March 22, 2004, because it was incompatible with the freedom of marriage under Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law and the abolition of the monarchy as a form of government. The Federal Constitutional Court also declared the house laws of the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern as irrelevant under constitutional law: “The constitution of the German Empire of April 16, 1871 was repealed (Art. 178, Paragraph 1 Weimar Constitution ). Art. 81 para. 1 of the Prussian constitution repealed the constitution of January 31, 1850 . At the same time, the house laws of the former ruling imperial and royal family became irrelevant in terms of constitutional law. "

Since the Crown Prince's inheritance contract was thus inapplicable, the will of succession according to the personal will of Louis Ferdinand, according to which his grandson Georg Friedrich became his sole heir, but encumbered with compulsory portions in favor of his father's siblings. As a result, he became the co-owner of Hohenzollern Castle , the sole heir of the real estate and fixed assets and the holder of the claim for the restitution of the works of art expropriated in 1945 from the House of Prussia. Since then, he has been the head of the family as "head of the house".

Works

  • Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia: As an imperial grandson through the world . Argon, Berlin 1952 (autobiography, new title in later editions: Im Strom der Geschichte ), z. B. Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia: In the stream of history . Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1985, 2nd edition 1987, ISBN 3-404-61082-2 .

Honors

literature

  • Heinrich Frhr. v. Massenbach: The Hohenzollern then and now . Verlag Tradition und Leben, Bonn 2004, ISBN 3-9800373-0-4 , page 75 ff.
  • Wolfgang Stribrny: The way of the Hohenzollern . Starke-Verlag, Limburg 1981, ISBN 3-7980-0695-4 , pages 215-221.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Prussia: The House of Hohenzollern 1918–1945 . Langen Müller, Munich and Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7844-2077-X
  • Michael Prince of Prussia: To be a Prussian Prince . Langen Müller, Munich and Vienna 1986.

Web links

Commons : Louis Ferdinand von Prussia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ADEL / HOHENZOLLERN: Aunt in front . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1968 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Interview in DER SPIEGEL-1993 , accessed on March 5, 2011.
  3. ^ Eva-Maria Schnurr: Hohenzollern dispute: Historian Karina Urbach on Crown Prince, Nazis, money. In: Spiegel Online . November 26, 2019, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Stephan Malinowski: Nazi history: The brown Crown Prince . In: The time . No. 33/2015 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Land stops payment to Hohenzollern. In: maz-online.de. March 15, 2014, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Julian Heissler: Hohenzollern ǀ Majesty need coal. In: freitag.de. May 12, 2014, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  7. ^ Federal Court of Justice ruling v. December 2nd, 1998, Ref .: IV ZB 19/97 . Wolters Kluwer Germany GmbH. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  8. ^ Constitution of the Free State of Prussia of November 30, 1920 (see Art. 81 there)
  9. ↑ Decision of March 22, 2004 , Az .: 1 BvR 2248/01, full text (see there marginal 45)
predecessor Office successor
Wilhelm Head of the House of Hohenzollern
1951–1994 		Georg Friedrich
personal data
SURNAME Prussia, Louis Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prussia, Louis Ferdinand Victor Eduard Adalbert Michael Hubertus Prince von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Prince, head of the House of Hohenzollern
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1994
Place of death Bremen