Woldemar (Lippe-Detmold)

Woldemar to the lip

Günther Friedrich Woldemar (born April 18, 1824 in Detmold ; † March 20, 1895 there ) was Prince of Lippe .

Life

Career

Woldemar was the third son of Leopold II and brother of his predecessor Leopold III. When he took office on December 8, 1875, he was 51 years old. As a later son he became an officer in the Prussian army , resigned as a general of the cavalry and became chief of the infantry regiment "Count Bülow von Dennewitz" (6th Westphalian) No. 55 and knight of the Order of the Black Eagle .

When he took office in Lippe, the political conditions were extremely unpleasant as a result of the constitutional struggles. A state parliament with no quorum , fierce political and economic struggles and differences between conservatives and liberals, between town and country, between orthodoxy and liberalism. The country pinned great hopes on the liberal heir to the throne and his liberal reforms. This hope was fulfilled to a large extent.

On January 13, 1876, he appointed August Eschenburg as President of the Cabinet Ministry with the task of restoring constitutional conditions. It also succeeded in convening a working state parliament, persuading the nobility to renounce their class privileges and thus reaching an agreement. On the other hand, despite extensive concessions from the government, Woldemar energetically stressed his sovereign rights at every opportunity.

Apart from Princess Pauline , no other prince has dealt with all government affairs as he did. However, he only gave the broad lines of politics. His frugality was a mainspring of his actions and decisions. The fact that he withdrew the grant from the court theater and the court orchestra lost the sympathy of the art-loving public. Since he did not have the affability and kindness of his brother, was rather high-handed, unlovable and taciturn, he was not too popular.

In view of his own childlessness, the incapacitated brother Karl Alexander zur Lippe (1831-1905) and the resulting difficulties for the succession, he tried to prejudice the events. Due to personal aversion and inspired by the desire to bequeath his land to a member of a ruling princely house, he appointed Prince Adolf zu Schaumburg-Lippe , a brother-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II , to be his successor in his will and thus sparked the Lippe succession dispute , which separated the spirits in Lippe in the following decade and aroused the interest of the world public.

marriage

Prince Woldemar married Princess Sophie of Baden on November 19, 1858 (* August 7, 1834; † April 6, 1904). The marriage remained childless.

literature

• Willi Gerking: The Counts of Lippe-Biesterfeld . 1st edition. heka-Verlag, Bad Oeynhausen 2001, ISBN 3-928700-62-6 .

Web links

• Curriculum vitae from 1893 with picture

predecessor	Office	successor
Leopold III.	Prince of the Lippe 1875–1895	Alexander (Prince) Adolf zu Schaumburg-Lippe (Regent)