Wilhelm Karl Prince of Prussia

From left to right: Burchard, father Prince Oskar with Wilhelm-Karl , mother Princess Ina-Marie, Herzeleide and Oskar jr. (1925)

Grave of Wilhelm Karl Prince of Prussia in the Bornstedter Friedhof in Potsdam

Wilhelm Karl Adalbert Erich Detloff Prince of Prussia (born January 30, 1922 in Potsdam ; † April 9, 2007 in Holzminden ) was master master of the Order of St. John and the last living grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Life

Wilhelm Karl was the youngest of the four children of the emperor's son Prince Oskar von Prussia (1888–1958) and his wife Ina Marie, née Countess von Bassewitz-Levetzow (1888–1973).

The National Socialists had denied him a planned law degree. He served in the Wehrmacht as a first lieutenant in the reserve. In 1944 he was accepted into the Order of St. John. At the end of the Second World War it came to the Westerbrak manor of the von Grone family near Bodenwerder via Potsdam . From 1958 to autumn 1999, he was the successor of his father, the 36th Lord Master of the Brandenburg Balley of the Knightly Order of St. Johannis from the Hospital in Jerusalem (Order of St. John). His services during his tenure as master master included the expansion of the diaconal activities of the order, the Johanniter relief community (s) and the Johanniter accident aid as well as the transfer of the religious houses in eastern Germany.

From his marriage to Armgard von Veltheim (1926-2019) in 1952, he had a daughter Donata-Viktoria (* 1952) and two sons, Wilhelm-Karl (* 1955) and Oskar (* 1959). The historian Dr. phil. Oskar Prince of Prussia has been the Lord Master of the Order of St. John since 1999, succeeding his father.

Until the end of the 1970s he was a member of the CDU in the district assembly and city council of Holzminden.

He was buried on April 18, 2007 in the Potsdam-Bornstedt cemetery, where his brother Oskar, who died in 1939, is also buried.

job

After training in agriculture, he had established a close relationship with the Gerberding family. From 1960 to 1984 he was managing director of the Dragoco company based in Holzminden - a company in the fragrance and flavoring industry  - and primarily responsible for branches in the USA.

Awards

• Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1982)
• Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit (1988)
• Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, awarded on March 9, 2001 in Hanover by Prime Minister Sigmar Gabriel
• Grand Cross of the Pro Merito Melitensi Order of Merit of the Sovereign Order of Malta
• Haarmann plaque and 2002 honorary citizenship of the city of Holzminden

Publications

Books

• Wilhelm-Karl Prince of Prussia: Order of the Johanniter. Speeches and essays. Nieder-Weisel 1983 (= issue 11 of the series of publications of the Hessian Cooperative of the Order of St. John).
• Wilhelm-Karl Prince of Prussia and Bernd Baron Freytag von Loringhoven : Johanniter and July 20, 1944 . 2nd edition, Nieder-Weisel 1989 (= Issue 14 of the series of publications of the Hessian Cooperative of the Order of St. John).
• Wilhelm-Karl Prince of Prussia, Karl-Günther von Hase and Hans Poeppel : The soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Herbig, Munich 1998 (6th edition 2000), ISBN 3-7766-2057-9 .

Essays

(Selection)

• An imperial grandson to the diaries of Sigurd v. Ilsemann . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 8, 1967, page 9
• Replica of a Prussian . In: Evangelical Commentaries 10, 1980
• No operetta regiment . In: Die Zeit , May 13, 1988
• John the Baptist : Patron of the Order of St. John . In: The Order of St. John . 3/1989
• My image of Prussia . In: Reinhard Appel , Karl-Günther von Hase (Ed.): Prussia 1701/2001 . eco, Cologne 2001, pp. 20-25, ISBN 3-934519-80-6

literature

• Heinrich Freiherr von Massenbach: The Hohenzollern then and now.
• Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility , Princely Houses, Volume XII (= Volume 85 of the complete series), Limburg 1984
• Prussian communications. No. 109, Remscheid 1992, page 4 (short biography for his 70th birthday)
• A. von Block-Schlesier: Portrait of the Lord Master of the Order of St. John, Wilhelm Karl Prince v. Prussia. In: Heritage & Mission. No. 2/1997, p. 18
• W. Wandesleben: Prince Wilhelm Karl of Prussia resigns as Lord Master of the Order of St. John. In: Heritage & Mission. No. 5/1999, p. 56
• Wolfgang Stribrny: The Order of St. John and the House of Hohenzollern. Niederweisel 2004 (= Issue 24 of the series of publications of the Hessian Cooperative of the Order of St. John, in the name of the Hess. Genoss. Edited by Prof. Dr. Dr. Otto Böcher)

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Karl Prince of Prussia in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography on the Hohenzollern website
• Classification in the family tree
• Obituary at Johanniter.de (does not work)
• Interview (2004) with arte
• Iring Fetscher : The humble one. My meeting with Prince Wilhelm Karl of Prussia . In: Tagesspiegel

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary by the Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Bishop Wolfgang Huber
2. ↑ preussen.de ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Obituary of the Order of St. John

predecessor	Office	successor
Oskar Prince of Prussia	Master of the Balley Brandenburg of the Order of St. John 1958–1999	Oskar Prince of Prussia
King Wilhelm II of Prussia	Protector of the Brandenburg Balley of the Order of St. John 1999–2007	–––––