Ludwig of Hesse and by the Rhine
Ludwig Hermann Alexander Chlodwig Prince of Hesse and the Rhine (under civil law: Prince and Landgrave of Hesse) (born November 20, 1908 in Darmstadt ; † May 30, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main ) was the younger son of the last reigning Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and near Rhein (1868-1937) and his second wife Princess Eleonore zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1871-1937).
Life
Prince Ludwig grew up together with his two years older brother Georg Donatus, alternating between the Wolfsgarten Castle and the New Palais in Darmstadt. During the First World War he received his first private lessons. Ludwig, called "Lu" in the family circle, was taught almost without exception at home like his brother. Both passed the external Abitur in the Old Realgymnasium on March 6, 1926. Ludwig then studied archeology and art history specializing in ornamentation at the Universities of Darmstadt , Lausanne and Munich .
After completing his studies, the trained art historian became an attaché at the German embassy in London . In Upper Bavaria , Ludwig met Margaret Campbell Geddes , four and a half years his junior , daughter of the British diplomat and professor Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes and the American Isabella Gamble Ross. Ludwig and Margaret decided to get married at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . After the wedding had been postponed to November 20, 1937 (Ludwig's 29th birthday) due to the death of Ludwig's father, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig , who had been deposed in 1918 , Ludwig's mother Eleonore , his brother Georg Donatus, his wife Cäcilie and their children came Ludwig and Alexander died on November 16 in an aircraft accident near Ostend when the company wanted to travel to London for their wedding. As a result, Ludwig became the last male descendant of his family to inherit the Hessen-Darmstadt family together with Margaret, whom he married in a silent marriage ceremony on November 17, 1937. Ludwig could never quite get over the death of his family - "A disciplined sadness distinguished him."
In World War II, Ludwig was called up for military service. Soon afterwards he was released from the Wehrmacht along with other members of former ruling houses because of “political unreliability” . He then withdrew to Wolfsgarten Castle with his wife, who aroused suspicion because of her British origins.
After the end of the World War, the couple got involved in the reconstruction of Darmstadt, in art, museums and charitable institutions such as the Alice Hospital, the Eleonorenheim and the Red Cross. By lending the famous Darmstadt Madonna to the Museum in Basel, they enabled Darmstadt children, the Madonna children, to spend holidays in Davos, Switzerland, in the 1940s and 1950s . Among other things, Ludwig co-founded the Institute for New Technical Form , the Design Council , the Bauhaus Archive , created the New Rosenhöhe Artists' Colony and helped design the German pavilion for the 1958 Expo in Brussels . As a lover of classical music , he sponsored the Ansbacher Festwochen and the Aldeburgh Festival . He translated texts for his friend Benjamin Britten and had the English composer come to Wolfsgarten, where parts of his opera Death in Venice , published in 1973, were written.
The marriage of Ludwig and Margaret, who were very popular with the Hessian population, remained childless. After the death of Georg Donatus, both had adopted their only surviving child, Johanna (* 1936), who, however, died of meningitis in 1939 . Ludwig died in 1968 at the age of 59. The funeral service took place on June 6, 1968 in the Stadtkirche Darmstadt in the presence of the European nobility. Ludwig is buried with his wife Margaret (1913–1997) in a simple communal grave on the Rosenhöhe , in the immediate vicinity of his parents and his brother's family.
Ludwig Prince of Hesse adopted Moritz von Hessen-Kassel (1926–2013) in 1960 , in whose person the two lines of the House of Hesse , which had been separate since 1567 , finally reunited.
Pedigree
Pedigree of Prince Ludwig | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great grandparents |
Prince Karl of Hesse and by the Rhine (1809–1877) |
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861) |
Prince Ferdinand zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1806–1876) |
Count Wilhelm zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (1807–1898) |
||||
Grandparents |
Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and the Rhine (1837–1892) |
Prince Hermann Adolf zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1838–1899) |
||||||
parents |
Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by the Rhine (1868–1937) |
|||||||
Ludwig (1908–1968), Prince of Hesse and the Rhine |
Awards and honors
- Silver plaque of merit of the city of Darmstadt (together with his wife Margaret)
- Goethe badge of the state of Hesse
literature
- Manfred Knodt : Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine: His life and time . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1978. - ISBN 3-87704-006-3 .
- Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 .
- Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 242.
Web links
- Hesse and by Rhine, Ludwig Hermann Alexander Chlodwig Prince of. Hessian biography. (As of January 22, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine: His life and his time . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1978. - ISBN 3-87704-006-3 . P. 107.
- ↑ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine: His life and his time . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1978. - ISBN 3-87704-006-3 . Pp. 108-109.
- ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 159.
- ↑ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine: His life and his time . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1978. - ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 116.
- ↑ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine: His life and his time . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1978. - ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 410.
- ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 , p. 160.
- ^ Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by the Rhine . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 4, 1968, p. 20.
- ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . Pp. 160-161.
- ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 163.
- ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 159.
- ^ A b Ludwig Prince of Hesse . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 32/1968 of July 29, 1968 (accessed on July 16, 2011 via Munzinger Online ).
- ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 165.
- ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility , Princely Houses, Volume XVI, Limburg ad Lahn, 2001, p. 33.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Hessen and near Rhine, Ludwig von |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hessen and near Rhine, Ludwig Hermann Alexander Chlodwig (full name); Hesse and near the Rhine, Ludwig Prince of |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German nobleman, head of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 20, 1908 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Darmstadt |
DATE OF DEATH | May 30, 1968 |
Place of death | Frankfurt am Main |