Michael-Benedikt of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

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Coat of arms of the former Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach

Michael-Benedikt Georg Jobst Karl Alexander Bernhard Claus Frederick Prince of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach (born November 15, 1946 in Bamberg ) is a lawyer , entrepreneur and since 1988 head of the House of Saxony-Weimar and thus also the senior of the Wettin House .

family

Michael-Benedikt von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach is the only son of Karl-August von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1912–1988) and his wife Elisabeth Freiin von Wangenheim-Winterstein (1912–2010). He has two sisters, Elisabeth Sophie (* 1945) and Beatrice-Maria (* 1948).

His grandfather Wilhelm Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1876–1923) was the last ruling Grand Duke. His great-great-great-great-great-great-aunt Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was the wife of the first German Emperor Wilhelm I. Through the granddaughter of the British King Georg II , Princess Augusta of Hanover , he takes a place in the British line of succession (place 569). His great-great-grandmother (Grand Duchess Sophie) was a princess of the Netherlands. Until the amendment of the Dutch constitution in 1921 in the aftermath of the First World War, the House of Saxony-Weimar provided the Dutch heir to the throne in the event that the Orange people died out .

Life

Childhood, education and work

Michael-Benedikt von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach was born in Bamberg on November 15, 1946, after his parents had fled Thuringia shortly before, in June 1945 . In 1948, at the time of the Soviet occupation , the members of the House of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach were deprived of their civil rights by the Thuringian state government in order to oppose the appeal to ordinary courts against the breach of the state treaty with the House of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach of 1921 and to protect the Thuringian state constitution. Therefore a return of the family to Thuringia was out of the question. According to his own statement, the escape was a “traumatic event” for his parents, “an amputation that left deep scars in their psyche”. As a teenager he drove with his parents to the Hessian-Thuringian border and looked at the Wartburg from a distance. The family later lived in Weikersheim , then in Tübingen and Stuttgart . At the age of 15 Michael-Benedikt came to the boarding school at Schule Schloss Salem and passed his Abitur there in 1966. He then studied law in Freiburg and Kiel .

He began his career as a broker in New York City from 1969 to 1970 . Further stations in life were Amsterdam , London and Tokyo .

The GDR he first visited in 1972 with a British passport , which he as a descendant of King George I had received. A second visit took place at Easter 1987 when he had his daughter Leonie baptized in the Herder Church in Weimar .

Since 1990 he has been active in the Wartburg Foundation , Eisenach, which was founded by his grandfather in 1921, and is committed to the same as a board member and advisory board chairman of the Wartburg business enterprises .

After the Compensation and Compensation Act (ELAG) was passed in September 1994 with the regulation that the land expropriations carried out by the Soviet military administration in Germany should not be reversed, but rather compensated, Michael-Benedikt bought around 2,500 hectares of forest near Zillbach (Schwallungen) from former family property.

At the end of the 1990s, he applied for the return of part of the estate of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller , which was in his father's private possession until 1918. He based his claims on the prevailing legal situation ( Property Act / EALG ). Real estate and movable works of art were also in discussion ; according to the unification agreement of 1921, the objects belonged to his father Carl-August as private property. After an amicable agreement, in 2004 he transferred all claims for the return of estate assets according to EALG to the Free State of Thuringia .

Cultural and political engagement

Michael-Benedikt von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach lives in Mannheim, but has a house and business in Thuringia and is interested in the political and cultural development of the country. In accordance with the tradition of his house, he feels obliged to maintain the home and cultural landscape, especially in Weimar and on the Wartburg, and is active in the corresponding associations and boards of trustees. As an active board member, he is closely linked to the development of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar . Its aim is to wake the Klassikstiftung with its treasures "from the slumbering slumber of regionality, to make it international. In order to let this cultural jewel shine outside of Thuringia as well." The renunciation of the valuable cultural assets was confirmed on September 20, 2005 by the awarding of the Maecenas honor by the working group of independent cultural institutes e. V. (AsKI) honored in the Federal Council. The laudation was given by Prime Minister a. D. Kurt Biedenkopf .

He is skeptical of the changes in the landscape caused by wind turbines and overland power lines, and he also sees a threat to Germany as an industrial location from the energy transition .

At the Thuringian State Exhibition 2016 “The Ernestiner . A dynasty shapes Europe ”, he appeared as a representative of the Princely House and published the accompanying publication“ In the footsteps of the Grand Dukes of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. ”

Marriages, descendants and succession

On June 9, 1970 Michael-Benedikt von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach married Renate Henkel (born September 17, 1947) in Breitscheid . The childless marriage ended in divorce in 1974. On November 15, 1980 he married Dagmar Hennings (born June 24, 1948) in London .

A daughter emerged from her marriage to Dagmar Hennings: Leonie Mercedes Augusta Silva Elisabeth Margarethe (born October 30, 1986 in Frankfurt am Main , baptized Easter 1987 in Weimar). She is to become his successor on the board of trustees of the Wartburg Foundation and Classic Foundation Weimar.

Since the Salic law still applies in the House of Saxe-Weimar , it is likely that it will not be his daughter but his cousin Wilhelm Ernst Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (* 1946) who will succeed him as head of the Wettin family.

Memberships

Awards

literature

  • Thomas Schade: The prince of renunciation. In: Sächsische Zeitung of June 18, 2014, p. 3.
  • Barbara Beck and HRH Michael-Benedikt Prince of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach: In the footsteps of the Grand Dukes of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenbach: Pictures and sketches from a German princely house. Weimar Publishing Company 2016.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prince Michael of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: I was just Mike-B. Weimar , Thüringer Allgemeine, November 15, 2016
  2. ↑ http://www.wald-prinz.de/waldbesitzer-wem-gehort-der-wald/665#Waldbesitzer
  3. ↑ Prince Michael of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: I was just Mike-B. Weimar , Thüringer Allgemeine, November 15, 2016
  4. ^ Prince Michael von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: Vigilance is the order of the day . Thuringian newspaper, June 14, 2011
  5. ↑ Prince Michael von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: Opinion on a letter to the editor under derogatory about wind power . Thuringian newspaper, June 29, 2011
  6. ↑ Prince Michael: The Ernestines | Classic Foundation blog. In: blog.klassik-stiftung.de. Retrieved July 5, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Michael-Benedikt von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Michael-Benedikt Georg Jobst Karl Alexander Bernhard Claus Frederick Prince von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German head of the House of Saxe-Weimar
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg