Ludwig of Hesse and by the Rhine

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Ludwig Prince of Hesse and the Rhine in the 1920s

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

Ludwig with his parents and older brother Georg Donatus (1910)

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)
⚭ 1836
Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (1815–1885)

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861)
⚭ 1840
Queen Victoria (United Kingdom) (1819–1901)

Prince Ferdinand zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1806–1876)
⚭ 1836
Countess Caroline von Collalto and San Salvatore (1818–1855)

Count Wilhelm zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (1807–1898)
⚭ 1835
Countess Elisabeth zu Stolberg-Rossla (1817–1896)

Grandparents

Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and the Rhine (1837–1892)
⚭ 1862
Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland (1843–1878)

Prince Hermann Adolf zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1838–1899)
⚭ 1865
Countess Agnes zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (1842–1904)

parents

Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by the Rhine (1868–1937)
⚭ 1905
Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1871–1937)

Ludwig (1908–1968), Prince of Hesse and the Rhine

Awards and honors

literature

Web links

Commons : Ludwig von Hessen-Darmstadt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 159.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 , p. 160.
  7. ^ Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by the Rhine . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 4, 1968, p. 20.
  8. ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . Pp. 160-161.
  9. ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 163.
  10. ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 159.
  11. ^ A b Ludwig Prince of Hesse . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 32/1968 of July 29, 1968 (accessed on July 16, 2011 via Munzinger Online ).
  12. ^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt . Darmstadt: Schlapp, 1977. - ISBN 3-87704-004-7 . P. 165.
  13. ^ 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