Woizlawa-Feodora Princess Reuss

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Woizlawa-Feodora Princess Reuss (born Woizlawa-Feodora Elise Marie Elisabeth Duchess of Mecklenburg , born December 17, 1918 in Rostock ; † June 3, 2019 in Görwihl , district of Strittmatt ) was one of the last living members of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin .

biography

Woizlawa-Feodora was the only daughter of Adolf Friedrich zu Mecklenburg and his first wife Viktoria Feodora , geb. Princess Reuss, the eldest daughter of Prince Heinrich XXVII. (Reuss younger line) . Her first name Woizlawa was reminiscent of the ancestor of the House of Mecklenburg, the wife of the Obotrite prince Pribislaw , her second of her mother, who died at birth. She grew up mainly with her father in Bad Doberan , with her paternal grandmother in Ludwigslust and in the Alexandrinen Cottage in Heiligendamm as well as with her maternal grandparents, Prince and Princess Reuss jL, in Gera and Ebersdorf in Thuringia.

On September 15, 1939, she married her distant relative Heinrich I (Harry) Prince Reuss (* October 8, 1910, † March 10, 1982) in Bad Doberan , who died in 1935 by her childless and unmarried uncle Heinrich XLV. was adopted. Woizlawa-Feodora and Heinrich I. Prinz Reuss have a daughter and five sons:

  • Feodora Princess Reuss (born February 5, 1942)
  • Heinrich VIII. Prince Reuss (born August 30, 1944)
  • Henry IX. Prince Reuss (born June 30, 1947)
  • Heinrich X. Prince Reuss (born July 28, 1948)
  • Henry XIII. Prince Reuss (born December 4, 1951)
  • Henry XV. Prince Reuss (born October 9, 1956)

After her husband retired from military service in 1941 due to a serious injury, the couple lived together at Osterstein Castle in Gera. Feodora witnessed the destruction of the castle in the heaviest bombing raid on Gera on April 6, 1945. Then the family first moved to Ebersdorf Castle ; After the US forces withdrew from Thuringia in the summer of 1945, Heinrich I, Feodora and their children fled to live with Heinrich I’s sister, Felizitas zu Ysenburg and Büdingen , in Büdingen in Hesse . Her uncle Heinrich XLV., Who stayed in Ebersdorf, was abducted by the Soviet military in August 1945 and has been missing since then.

Heinrich I became the general representative of his brother-in-law Otto Friedrich zu Ysenburg and Büdingen. After his death in 1982 Woizlawa-Feodora continued to live in Büdingen until 1991. After reunification , she moved back to Gera for 15 years and also lived for a few years in a small apartment in the preserved part of Osterstein Castle. Due to her membership in the new religious community Fiat Lux , she moved to the southern Black Forest, where she has lived in her own apartment in the Strittmatt district of Görwihl since 2005 . On the occasion of her 100th birthday in December 2018, she gave the Ostthüringer Zeitung a detailed interview that appeared in three parts. She died after a short, serious illness in her house in the Strittmatt district of the Görwihl community. She was buried in the cemetery of the Solms-Laubach family in the Arnsburg monastery .

Processes for the recovery of expropriated goods

It became known above all through the attempt that lasted more than 20 years, the expropriation of Heinrich XLV's property after 1945 . (Reuss younger line) to challenge. As the widow of his adopted son and at the same time as the granddaughter of Prince Heinrich XXVII. she represented the claims of the Reuss heirs. On October 21, 1997, an amicable agreement was reached with the city of Gera on the whereabouts of most of the movable art objects in the Gera city museum . By decision of January 16, 1998, the Thuringian State Office for the settlement of open property issues confirmed this amicable agreement. As a result, around 700 works of art were returned to the family and auctioned in 1998. The entry of “Gera silver furniture” in the register of nationally valuable cultural assets was unsuccessfully challenged by the family.

Meanwhile, the dispute over the real estate continued. The main argument of Woizlawa-Feodora and her lawyers, Heinrich XLV. had also had British citizenship and his expropriation was therefore not lawful, was rejected in the dispute over Osterstein Castle by the Gera Administrative Court in 2005. A complaint against the judgment was rejected by the Federal Administrative Court as unfounded. On the other hand, Woizlawa-Feodora Princess Reuss was successful with her request for transfer back from Thallwitz Castle , which was awarded to the family in a settlement in 2008. After the city of Gera u. a. had completely rebuilt the city museum, the contractually agreed presentation of Reuss' art treasures in the city museum could no longer be realized, so that an adjustment of the amicable agreement became necessary. Princess Reuss brought an action against the decision of September 26, 1996, with which the State Office for the Regulation of Unresolved Property Issues (LARoV) Gera rejected the restitution application. By 2010, the 2nd Chamber of the VG Gera had separated the action in a total of 180 proceedings by unappealable resolutions (§§ 4.5 VermG) and provided each with its own file number.

For reasons of procedural economy, Princess Reuss withdrew the lawsuit in some proceedings (e.g. if in rem restitution was basically excluded due to §§ 4.5 of the Property Act, even when the entitlement was established), without withdrawing all claims for return. A final decision has not yet been made on the return claim.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ a b Ulrike Merkel: "It was wonderful with the grandparents in Gera" (interview, part 1). Ostthüringer Zeitung , December 12, 2018, p. 12.
  3. ↑ For their spouses, children and the rest of the family, see Reuss family list
  4. ↑ a b c Ulrike Merkel: Osterstein Castle burned out in three weeks (interview, part 2). Ostthüringer Zeitung, December 14, 2018, p. 3.
  5. ↑ a b c Ulrike Merkel: "If your home is torn from you, that's bad" (interview, part 3). Ostthüringer Zeitung, December 17, 2018, p. 3.
  6. ↑ a b Karin Stöckl-Steinebrunner: At the age of 100 you can enjoy a "certain freedom from fools". Badische Zeitung, December 17, 2018, accessed on December 18, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Werner Probst; Markus Vonberg: Strittmatt: A princess dies in the Hotzenwald. Südkurier , June 5, 2019, accessed on July 15, 2019 .
  8. ^ Fürstenhaus Reuss: Dispute over the status of the "Geraer Silbermöbel" , article in the Tagesspiegel of September 27, 2006
  9. ^ Judgment of the OVG Weimar from November 22, 2007, file number: 1 ZKO 1000/06
  10. ^ Demands of the Princely House of Reuss , report by studiogera.de of May 18, 2011, accessed on November 10, 2011
  11. ↑ Reuss's complaint rejected , article in the Thüringer Allgemeine from April 27, 2011, accessed on September 10, 2011
  12. ↑ Fürstenhaus Reuss receives the Thallwitz Castle back , article in Die Welt from July 25, 2008, accessed on September 10, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Reuss, Woizlawa-Feodora Princess
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reuss, Woizlawa-Feodora Elise Marie Elisabeth Princess (full name); Duchess of Mecklenburg, Woizlawa-Feodora Elise Marie Elisabeth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German members of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Rostock
DATE OF DEATH 3rd June 2019
Place of death Görwihl