Viktor Adolf zu Bentheim and Steinfurt

Viktor-Adolph Wilhelm Otto Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt (born July 18, 1883 in Potsdam ; † June 4, 1961 in Burgsteinfurt , Münsterland ) had been the head of the Bentheim and Steinfurt family since 1919 .

Coat of arms of the counts and princes of Bentheim and Steinfurt after 1589

Life

Viktor Adolph zu Bentheim and Steinfurt was a son of Prince Alexis zu Bentheim and Steinfurt (1845-1919) and his wife Pauline zu Waldeck and Pyrmont (1855-1925). This was the second daughter of Prince Georg Viktor (Waldeck-Pyrmont) (1831-1893) and his first wife Princess Helene von Nassau (1831-1888). Her sister Emma was Queen of the Netherlands. Viktor attended the Arnoldinum high school in Burgsteinfurt. He studied law in Bonn and became a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn . From 1908 he worked as a trainee lawyer. He was a Rittmeister in the 1st Guard Uhlan Regiment. In 1909, after the resignation of his older brother Eberwyn, he became Hereditary Prince. From 1910 to 1918 he represented his father as a hereditary member as a member of the Württemberg Chamber of Classes . With the death of his father on January 21, 1919, he became the 5th prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt. After the end of the monarchy and when the Weimar Constitution came into force on August 14, 1919, his title became part of his surname. He remained head of the family of the Bentheim and Steinfurt family until his death.

His son, Alexis Prinz zu Bentheim and Steinfurt , took off from Avignon on December 12, 1943 on his first enemy flight during the Second World War , never returned and is still considered "missing at sea" to this day.

Viktor Adolph zu Bentheim und Steinfurt died on June 4, 1961 at the age of 77 in Burgsteinfurt. Since the eldest son Alexis died in the war, the younger son Christian became the new head of the family after the death of Viktor Adolph.

Marriage and offspring

In 1921 Viktor married Stephanie zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1899–1925), daughter of Prince Friedrich zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1868–1945) and Princess Louise of Denmark (1875–1906), daughter of the Danish King Friedrich VIII.

Viktor Adolph and Stephanie had four children:

• Alexis Friedrich (born July 30, 1922 - † December 2, 1943, off Marseille), German fighter pilot
• Christian (born December 9, 1923)
• Adolf (* / † May 2, 1925)
• Viktor (* / † May 2, 1925)

After Stephanie died in 1925 while giving birth to the twins, Viktor married on June 30, 1931 in Lich Rosa Helene von Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1901–1963), daughter of Reinhard Ludwig zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich (1867–1951) and Marka Klara Rosa, Countess zu Solms-Sonnenwalde-Pouch (1879–1965).

The marriage had the following seven children:

• Juliane (born December 22, 1932 - † October 2, 2013)
• Reinhard Georg (born March 27, 1934)
• Maria Adelheid (born April 14, 1935)
• Charlotte Elisabeth (born July 3, 1936)
• Ferdinand (born August 13, 1938 - September 19, 2010)
• Otto-Victor (* July 24, 1940 - November 1, 2016)
• Oskar Arnold (born March 8, 1946)

Honors

• Governing commander of the Order of St. John

literature

• Herrmann AL Degener : Who is it? 5th edition, Leipzig 1911.
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 51 .
• Genealogical manual of the nobility . Volume 149, 2011, pp. 120-122.

Web links

• House Bentheim: Excerpt from Paul Theroff's Online Gotha
• Victor Adolf Fürst zu Bentheim and Steinfurt on thepeerage.com , accessed on August 19, 2015.
• Person Bentheim

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article 109 WRV ( Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919) stipulates that the privileges or disadvantages under public law of birth or status are to be abolished. Denominations of nobility are only [no longer] part of the name and may no longer be awarded. In the case of the descendants of the former dynasty of Bentheim and Steinfurt , all family members have since then carried the surname Prince or Princess of Bentheim and Steinfurt . See Wilfried Rogasch : crash course nobility. DuMont, Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-8321-7617-4 , p. 17 f.
2. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1910, 19 , 781.
3. ↑ cf. Lino von Gartzen : Alexis zu Bentheim in Einestages on Spiegel Online . Remnants of Bentheim's Messerschmitt Bf 109 recovered from the seabed off Marseille were initially mistaken for relics of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's machine .
4. ^ Münsterland The Missing Prince - Searching for traces in the Mediterranean , Westfälische Nachrichten , December 2, 2008.
5. ^ Necrology

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexis	Head of the House of Bentheim and Steinfurt 1919–1961	Christian