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Former German nobility in the Nazi Party
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Beginning in 1925, some members of higher levels of the German nobility joined the Nazi Party, registered by their title, date of birth, NSDAP Party registration number, and date of joining the Party.[1]
Following Kaiser Wilhelm II's abdication and the German Revolution, the German nobility, as a legally defined class, was abolished. On promulgation of the Weimar Constitution on 11 September 1919, all such Germans were declared equal before the law with all persons of formerly lesser rank.[2] There were 22 heads of these former federal states: 4 German kings—of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg—6 grand dukes, 5 dukes, and 7 princes, who—along with all of their families—lost their titles and domains. Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and other Nazi leaders frequently appealed to these former princes, and especially to Wilhelm II and his family, by expressing sympathy for a restoration of the abolished monarchies and other such lost inheritances.
From 1925, the newly formed Nazi Party began accepting these princes by their (abolished) former titles, and by their (abolished) princedoms, and registering these dukes, princes, and princesses as such, in the Nazi Party. There are two known Nazi Party lists of such princes and principalities. Of the first list Historian Malinowski notes: "of 312 families of the old aristocracy 3,592 princes joined the Nazis (26.9%) before Hitler came to power in 1933." The second, in the Berlin Federal archives, lists 270 princely members of the Nazi Party (1928–1942), of which almost half joined the Nazis pre-Hitler. The Berlin list named 90 direct senior heirs, to their 22 abolished principalities,[3] and also included claimants to the (former) Imperial Crown of Wilhelm II.
After the proposed "fourth Kaiser" died fighting as a member of the Wehrmacht in 1940, Hitler issued the Prinzenerlass, prohibiting German princes from the Wehrmacht, but not from the Nazi Party or its paramilitary units, the Sturmabteilung (SA) or the Schutzstaffel (SS). Some German states provided a proportionally higher number of SS officers, including Hesse-Nassau and Lippe. Such princes included SS–Obergruppenführer and Higher SS and Police Leader Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
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German Empire and Kingdom of Prussia
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(Abolished 9 November 1918)
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Wilhelm II, German Emperor issued his statement of abdication as German Emperor on 9 November 1918. This was followed on 28 November by his abdication as King of Prussia, thus formally ending the House of Hohenzollern's 400-year rule over Prussia. He also gave up his, and his family's, future succession rights to the throne of Prussia and to the German imperial throne.[5]
William, German Crown Prince was first son and heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Crown Prince is known to have abdicated around the same time as his father in 1918. Prince William was a military commander, second in command to his commander in chief father, and served with Generalfeldmarschall Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria and Generalfeldmarschall Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg, at German military headquarters throughout World War I, until the armistice of 11 November 1918. As such, Wilhelm II and Crown Prince William directly commanded their chief of the General Staff, Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg, throughout the war. During the war, Crown Prince Wilhelm awarded the Iron Cross, first class, to the future leading Nazi Hermann Göring, after Göring flew reconnaissance and bombing missions in the Feldflieger Abteilung 25 (FFA 25) in the Crown Prince's Fifth Army.[6]
In the early 1930s, Wilhelm II apparently hoped the successes of the German Nazi Party would stimulate interest in a restoration of the monarchy, with Crown Prince William's son as the "fourth Kaiser".[7] In 1933, Hindenburg, now Reich President of the Weimar Republic, appointed Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany. Crown Prince Wilhelm was a member of the Stahlhelm, the conservative and nationalist veterans organization, which in 1931 had joined with the Nazis to form the Harzburg Front. Hitler visited the former Crown Prince at Cecilienhof three times, in 1926, in 1933 (on the "Day of Potsdam"), and in 1935.[8] On Hindenburg's death in August 1934, Hitler officially abolished the presidency and became German head of state as Führer, as well as Reich chancellor. This effectively forestalled the hopes of a Hohenzollern restoration at that time.
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, the son of Crown Prince William, nominated by Wilhelm as the "fourth Kaiser", took part in the invasion of France in May 1940. He was wounded during the fighting in Valenciennes and died on 26 May. His funeral service drew over 50,000 mourners.[9] His death and the ensuing sympathy of the German public toward a member of the former German royal house greatly bothered Hitler, and he began to see the Hohenzollerns as a threat to his power. In 1940, Hitler issued the Prinzenerlass, which prohibited princes from German royal houses from military service in the Wehrmacht.[9]
Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia was the fourth son of Emperor Wilhelm II by his first wife, Augusta Victoria. He joined the Nazi Party on 1 April 1930 and was honored by being granted the low Nazi Party membership number 24. In April 1932, he was elected as a Nazi deputy to the Landtag of Prussia. At the 5 March 1933 election, he was elected as a deputy to the national Reichstag from electoral constituency 4, Potsdam I.[10] In July, he was made a member of the Prussian State Council by Göring, now the minister-president of Prussia.[11] As perhaps the most prominent member of the Hohenzollerns in the Nazi Party, the former prince hoped that Hitler would one day elevate him or his son Alexander Ferdinand to the vacant throne. A member of the Nazi paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), August Wilhelm was promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer, the second highest SA rank, in June 1939.[12]
After the 1941 death of Prince August Wilhelm's father, the former Kaiser, and more so after making derogatory remarks about Reichsminister Joseph Goebbels, Prince August William was denounced in 1942, sidelined, and banned from making public speeches. In February 1945, with former Crown Princess Cecilie, August Wilhelm fled the approaching Red Army to take refuge with his aunt Princess Margaret of Prussia in Kronberg. Arrested and imprisoned after the end of the war, he faced a denazification trial in 1948. He was sentenced to thirty months at hard labour but was released on the basis of time served. He died on 25 March 1949.[12]
Prince Alexander Ferdinand was the only son of Prince August Wilhelm and his wife Princess Alexandra Victoria. Like his father, he hoped that Hitler would one day elevate him, or his son, to the vacant throne of the Kaiser. Their support for the Nazis caused disagreements among the Hohenzollerns, with Wilhelm II urging them both to leave the Nazi Party.[13] In 1933, Prince Alexander Ferdinand quit the SA and became a private in the German Army.[14] In 1934, Berlin reported that the prince quit the SA because Hitler had chosen the 21-year-old to succeed him as "head man in Germany when he [Hitler] no longer can carry the torch".[14] The report also said that Göring, harboring his own ambitions for the succession, was expected to oppose the prince's nomination.[14] In 1939, Prince Alexander Ferdinand was an Oberleutnant in the Luftwaffe signal corps.[15][16] Unlike many princes distrusted and removed from their commands by Hitler, he was the only Hohenzollern allowed to remain in his post.[17]
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Kingdom of Bavaria
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(Abolished 13 November 1918)
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King Ludwig III of Bavaria may have been Hitler's first association with the Kaiserreich nobility. At the outbreak of World War I, Ludwig III received a petition from Adolf Hitler, asking for permission to join the Royal Bavarian Army. The petition was granted and Hitler joined the army, where he served for the remainder of World War I.[20][21]
As the war drew to a close, the German Revolution broke out in Bavaria, and Ludwig III was the first Kaiserreich monarch to be deposed. On 7 November 1918, King Ludwig fled from Munich with his family to Schloss Anif, near Salzburg. On 12 November 1918, King Ludwig gave Prime Minister Dandl the Anif declaration, releasing all government officials, soldiers, and civil officers from their oath of loyalty to him. The republican government of Kurt Eisner declared the Wittelsbachs deposed, ending 700 years of Wittelsbacher rule over Bavaria.[22]
Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Ludwig's son and heir, did not join the far right in Germany, despite Hitler's attempts to win him over through Ernst Röhm and promises of royal restoration.[citation needed] Rupprecht opposed Hitler, but a plan to give Rupprecht dictatorial powers in Bavaria under the title of Staatskommissar, attracted support from a wide coalition of parties, even including the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Wilhelm Hoegner. However, the hesitancy of the Bavarian government under Minister-President Heinrich Held and Hitler's assumption of power in January 1933 ended all hopes for the idea.[23] Rupprecht continued to harbor the idea of the "restoration of the Bavarian monarchy", in a possible union with Austria as an independent Southern Germany.[24][full citation needed]
In a 1943 memorandum, Prince Rupprecht even mentioned his ambition for the German crown, (of the Kaiserreich), which had been held by the House of Wittelsbach in the past.
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Kingdom of Saxony
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(Abolished 13 November 1918)
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King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony
Frederick Augustus III was the last King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin. He voluntarily abdicated as King on 13 November 1918. When the German Republic was proclaimed in 1918, he was asked by telephone whether he would abdicate willingly. He said: "Oh, well, I suppose I'd better."[25] Upon abdicating, he is supposed to have said Nu da machd doch eiern Drägg alleene! (Saxon for "Well then do your sh... by yourselves!"). When cheered by a crowd in a railroad station several years after his abdication, he stuck his head out of the train's window and shouted, "You're a fine lot of republicans, I'll say!"[25] After his father's abdication in 1919, Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony, the king's first-born son and heir, renounced his rights to the Saxon throne to become a Catholic priest. This was very controversial among people who hoped that the monarchy might one day be restored. He worked in Berlin where he was credited with protecting Jews from the Nazi regime,[26] notably in contrast to his pro-Nazi brothers-in-law, Prince Frederich of Hohenzollern and Prince Franz Joseph of Hohenzolllern-Emden, who joined the SS. As a leading Roman Catholic nobleman and near-relative of the Habsburg, Bourbon, and Saxon dynasties, Prince Franz Joseph did much to lend respectability to the Nazi party.[27][28]
Kingdom of Württemberg
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(Abolished 30 November 1918)
King William II of Wurttemberg
King William II abdicated on 30 November 1918.[29] Princess Pauline was the elder daughter of William II and was a first cousin of: Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and senior Nazi Party members Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Princess Pauline was later indicted by a United States Military Government court for "having concealed two prominent Nazis since October 1945." The princess admitted "having deliberately provided a haven" for Gertrud Scholtz-Klink and her husband, former Major General August Heissmayer of the SS. The Princess had acknowledged knowing that "Scholtz-Klink was known as the chief of all Nazi women's organizations", but she denied awareness of Heissmayer's SS position. Scholtz-Klink told the authorities that she did not know whether "Adolf Hitler was alive or dead", but "as long as he lives in the hearts of his followers, he cannot die."[30]
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Grand Duchy of Baden
(Abolished 22 November 1918)
Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden
Grand Duke Frederick II abdicated on 22 November 1918, during the German Revolution of 1918–19 which resulted in the abolition of the Grand Duchy. After his death in 1928, the headship of the house was transferred over to his great uncle's grandson, Prince Maximilian of Baden. His successor Prince Maximilian, was the Chancellor of Germany and Minister President of Prussia, and the chief negotiator of the Kaiserreich abdication. Prince Max was married to Princess Marie Louise of Hanover, eldest daughter of Ernest Augustus II and Thyra of Denmark. Prince Max's son Prince Berthold of Baden married Princess Theodora, daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. As such, Prince Berthold was brother-in-law to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and eventually Elizabeth II. In 1920, with Kurt Hahn, Prince Max established the Schule Schloss Salem school[31][32] attended by Prince Philip.[33] Kurt Hahn also founded Gordonstoun, in Scotland, which was attended by Philip's heir, Prince Charles.
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Grand Duchy of Hesse
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(Abolished 9 November 1918)
Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse
Prince Frederick Charles was the brother-in-law of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. He was elected as King of Finland by the Parliament of Finland on 9 October 1918. However, with the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany ending monarchies in Germany, Finland adopted a republican constitution. His first son Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse, joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1930, and the SA. Stormtroopers in 1932. In 1933, Philipp's three brothers joined the SS and the SA. Philipp became a particularly close friend of Hermann Göring, the future head of the Luftwaffe. After Hindenburg's appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, Philipp was appointed Oberpräsident (Governor) of Hesse-Nassau, a member of the Reichstag, and of the Prussian Staatsrat. Philipp played an important role in the consolidation of Nazi rule in Germany. He introduced other aristocrats to NSDAP officials and, as son-in-law of the King of Italy, was a frequent go-between for Hitler and Benito Mussolini. As Governor of Hesse-Kassel, Philipp was complicit in the T-4 Euthanasia Program. In February 1941, Philipp signed the contract placing the sanitarium of Hadamar Clinic at the disposal of the Reich Interior Ministry. Over 10,000 mentally ill people were murdered there. In 1946, Prince Philipp of Hesse was charged with murder, but the charges were later dropped.
Prince Frederick's other son, Prince Christoph of Hesse, was an SS officer. Christophe was a director in the Ministry of Aviation, Commander of the Air Reserves, with the rank of Oberführer in the SS.[34] In 1943, he was killed in an airplane accident in a war zone near Italy.[citation needed] Prince Christoph was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through their daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, wife of Frederick III, German Emperor. Christoph married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark. Princess Sophie was the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, and the sister of the future Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Prince Wilhelm of Hesse was heir to the Hesse-Philippsthal line. Prince Wilhelm was the eldest child of Prince Chlodwig of Hesse and Princess Caroline of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich. In 1932, he joined the Nazi Party and the SS, rising to the rank of Hauptsturmführer.[35][36][page needed] Prince Wilhelm married Princess Marianne, the daughter of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia.[35] During World War II Prince Wilhelm refused to join an SS unit, instead switching to the regular German Army, where he became a captain of infantry.[35][37] He was killed in action during the fighting at Gor on the Eastern Front.
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Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine
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(Abolished 9 November 1918)
Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
During World War I, Grand Duke Ernest Louis served as an officer at Kaiser Wilhelm's headquarters. In July 1918, roughly sixteen months after the February Revolution, which deposed his brother-in-law, Nicholas II, Ernst's two sisters in Russia, Elizabeth, who had become a nun following the assassination of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei, in 1905, and Alexandra, the former tsarina, were killed by the Bolsheviks. At the end of the war, he lost his throne during the revolution of 1918, after refusing to abdicate.[39] Ernst was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918.[40]
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Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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(Abolished 14 November 1918)
Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Following the 1918 suicide of Grand Duke Adolphus Frederick VI of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Grand Duke Frederick Francis took up the regency of Strelitz, after the heir presumptive Duke Charles Michael, who was serving in the Russian Army at the time, had indicated that he wished to renounce his succession rights. Friedrich Franz abdicated the grand ducal throne on 14 November 1918 following the German Empire's defeat in World War I; the regency ended at the same time.[41][full citation needed] His son Friedrich Franz joined the Schutzstaffel (SS), and by 1936 held the rank of Hauptsturmführer (Captain).[42] He was posted to Denmark during World War II where he worked at the German embassy as a personal aide to the civilian administrator Werner Best.[42] He spent 1944 serving with the Waffen-SS tank corps.[42] In May 1943, Friedrich Franz was passed over as heir in favour of his younger brother Duke Christian Louis.[43]
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Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
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(Abolished 11 November 1918)
Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
Grand Duke Frederick was forced to abdicate his throne at the end of World War I, when the former Grand Duchy of the German Empire joined the post-war German Republic.[44] He and his family took up residence at Rastede Castle, where he took up farming and local industrial interests.[15] A year after his abdication, he asked the Oldenburg Diet for a yearly allowance of 150,000 marks, stating that his financial condition was "extremely precarious".[15] In 1931, Frederick died in Rastede.[44]
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Duchy of Anhalt
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(Abolished 12 November 1918)
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Joachim Ernst succeeded his father as Duke of Anhalt on 13 September 1918. However, due to his youth his uncle Prince Aribert of Anhalt was appointed regent. His brief reign came to an end on 12 November 1918 with his uncle abdicating in his name following the German revolution. The duchy became the Free State of Anhalt.
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Duchy of Brunswick
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(Abolished 8 November 1918)
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Prince Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover
Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, as well as 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, was the only son of George V of Hanover and Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. Although he was the senior male-line great-grandson of George III, he was deprived of his British peerages and honours for having sided with Germany in World War I.[46][47] Ernest Augustus was the last Hanoverian prince to hold a British royal title. His successor Ernst Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, and Prince of Hanover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, was Ernest Augustus's youngest child, with Princess Thyra.[48] When Ernest's older brother Prince George died, the German Emperor sent a message of condolence to the Duke. In response, the Duke sent Ernest, his only surviving son, to thank the Emperor. In Berlin, Ernest met Emperor William II's only daughter, Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, and they married in 1913. The wedding was the last great gathering of European sovereigns: the German Emperor and Empress, the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, George V and Queen Mary of the UK, and Tsar Nicholas II attended. His father's British dukedom was suspended under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917, and, on 8 November 1918, was forced to abdicate, along with the other Kaiserreich nobility. In 1947, his daughter Frederica became Queen of the Hellenes when her husband Prince Paul of Greece and Denmark succeeded as King. He died in 1953.
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Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg
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(Abolished 13 November 1918)
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Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
When Germany lost the war, all the German princes lost their titles and estates. Ernst was one of the first princes to realize major changes were coming for Germany, and quickly arrived at an amicable settlement with his subjects.[18] He was forced to abdicate the government of the duchy on 13 November 1918, and spent the rest of his life like a private citizen. On 1 May 1937, Ernst joined the Nazi party.[49] Ernst became the only former reigning German prince who accepted German Democratic Republic citizenship after World War II, refusing an offer to leave his beloved Schloß Fröhliche Wiederkunft and relocate to the British occupation zone. The Schloß had been confiscated by the Soviet occupiers, but Ernst had been granted free use of it until his death. In March 1954, with the death of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he became the last survivor of the German princes who had reigned until 1918. One year later, on 22 March 1955, he died at his Schloß.
Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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(Abolished 14 November 1918)
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Charles Edward was the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and the head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until his death in 1954. A male-line grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he was also, until 1919, a Prince of the United Kingdom as the Duke of Albany. The Duke was a controversial figure in the UK due to his status as sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, part of the German Empire, during World War I, when he held a commission as a general in the German Army. Consequently, George V ordered his name removed from the register of the Knights of the Garter in 1915. In July 1917, Charles Edward and his children had the Royal Arms insignia removed from their Saxe-Coburg and Gotha coats of arms. In 1918, he was forced to abdicate his ducal throne. He retained the style Highness of a sovereign ducal house in Germany, until 18 November 1918 when a Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha deposed him. On 23 November 1918, he signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne. In 1919, Charles Edward and his children also lost their British peerages, the titles of Prince and Princess of the United Kingdom, the styles Royal Highness and Highness, and other British honours.[50]
In 1977, Ottfried Neubecker, Director of the German General Rolls of Arms and of the Board of the International Academy of Heraldry, with the cooperation of J.P. Brooke-Little from the College of Arms, published A Little Brown Book, later reprinted in 1988/89/97 as Heraldry. Sources, Symbols and Meaning. (ISBN 0-316-64141-3). On page 96, Neubecker stated that: "The reigning royal family in Great Britain goes back to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, husband of Queen Victoria. Our summary of the family tree covers all those descended in the male line from Queen Victoria. As the princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were excluded from the British royal family in 1893, the labels chosen independently by them were not recognized in England.... on 17 July 1917 the name of Saxe-Coburg was changed to Windsor."[51] By warrant of 12 September 1917, and subsequent Order in Council of 1919, George V removed the inescutcheon of Saxony from the arms of all descendants of the Prince Consort.[52] Of George's 29 first-cousins on his father's side, 19 were German, the rest half-German; while on his mother's side, of the 31 first-cousins, six were German and 25 half-German.[citation needed]
In 1919, most, if not all of these Saxe-Coburg Gotha princes lost their German titles and royal status, in accordance with the Weimar Constitution, which abolished their German monarchy. Although according to Neubecker: "the princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were excluded from the British royal family in 1893[citation needed], the labels chosen independently by them were not recognized in England."[53][page needed] Following the successions to the British throne of two such Saxe-Coburg and Gotha princes—as king Edward VII, and king George V—the 1893 Saxe-Coburg and Gotha exclusions of the British branch were finally enacted in 1919, at the end of World War I, shortly prior to the Weimar exclusions.[citation needed]
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In 1932, Charles Edward took part in the creation of the Harzburg Front, through which the German National People's Party became associated with the Nazi Party. Charles Edward was a member of the (NSDAP), and formally joined the Nazi Party in 1935, becoming a member of the SA (Brownshirts), rising to rank of Obergruppenführer, which at the time was the highest commissioned SS rank, inferior only to that of Reichsführer-SS (Heinrich Himmler). Charles Edward held the same rank as Prince Josias of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Rudolf Hess, von Ribbentrop, Martin Bormann, and Reinhard Heydrich. He was also a member of the Reichstag representing the Nazi Party. In 1936, Adolf Hitler sent Charles Edward to Britain as president of the Anglo-German Friendship Society. His mission was to improve Anglo-German relations and to explore the possibility of a pact between the two countries. He sent Hitler encouraging reports about the strength of pro-German sentiment among the British aristocracy. After the Abdication Crisis, he played host to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, during their private tour of Germany in 1937.
Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, was a German aristocrat, and the Regent of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha during the minority of his wife's cousin, Duke Charles Edward, from 1900 to 1905. Ernst was the oldest of three children, and the only son, of Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Princess Leopoldine of Baden. He married Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh, daughter of The Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Ernst joined his son Gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe, who had joined in 1931, in the Nazi Party.[56] Prince Gottfried married Princess Margarita, who was one of the sisters of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II.
Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Hohenlohe) joined the Nazi Party, in 1937, together with several of her children.[57]
Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
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(Abolished 10 November 1918)
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Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Bernhard assumed the throne of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen after the death of his father in 1914. When Germany lost the war, all the German princes lost their titles and estates. Bernhard was forced to abdicate as duke on 10 November 1918, and spent the rest of his life in his former country as a private citizen. His wife Princess Charlotte of Prussia was the second child of Prince Frederick of Prussia and Princess Victoria. Charlotte was the eldest granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She was well loved by her paternal grandparents King Wilhelm I and Queen Augusta, and close to her brother Wilhelm II.
Georg, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, was the head of the house of Saxe-Meiningen from 1941 until his death.He was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II,[citation needed][59] Georg was the eldest son of Prince Frederick Johann of Saxe-Meiningen (1861–1914) and Countess Adelaide of Lippe-Biesterfeld (1870–1948). His uncle Bernhard III abdicated on 10 November 1918 following the German Revolution. In 1933, Georg joined the Nazi Party. He died in a Russian prisoner of war camp in Northern Russia. His heir was his second and only surviving son Prince Frederick Alfred who renounced the succession, becoming a monk in 1953, allowing it to pass to his uncle Bernhard.
Principality of Lippe
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(Abolished 12 November 1918)
Prince Leopold IV was forced to renounce the throne on 12 November 1918. Following the end of his rule, Lippe became a Free state in the new Weimar Republic. All three of his sons by his first wife became members of the Nazi party. His eldest son Prince Ernst is reported to have been the first German prince to join the party when he joined in May 1928.[62] When Leopold died in Detmold his three eldest sons were all disinherited and his youngest son Armin, Prince of Lippe, became head of the house.[citation needed]
Princess Marie Adelheid of Lippe was the daughter of Count Rudolph and Princess Luise of Ardeck. In 1920, Marie Adelheid married Prince Heinrich XXXII,[63] who had once been close to succeeding Queen Wilhelmina to the Dutch throne. They divorced in 1921.[63] Marie Adelheid's third marriage, in 1927, was to Hanno Konopath, a Nazi government official.[63] This marriage created some important contacts for her in the Nazi regime.[63]
Like the Hesse family, the Lippe dynasty joined the Nazi party in great numbers (eighteen members would eventually join).[64] Some German states, such as Hesse-Nassau and Lippe, provided a proportionally higher number of SS officers.[64] Marie Adelheid developed strong connections with the Nazi regime, and became a leading socialite during that time.[64] In 1921, she was an aide to the Nazi Minister of Food and Agriculture, Richard Walther Darré (a friend of her third husband's).[65] Her cousin Ernst, Prince of Lippe, (son of Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe) was also employed under Darré.[64] Marie Adelheid devoted her writing talent to promoting Nazi ideals, in particular those of Darré,[66] whose views suffered as new plans were produced by Himmler and Göring.[67] As Darré's influence declined, so did that of Marie Adelheid and her cousin.
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Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe
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(Abolished 15 November 1918)
Adolf II, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
Adolph II succeeded his father, Georg, as Prince in 1911, and ruled until he was forced to abdicate on 15 November 1918. Following the German revolution: the Principality became the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe. Adolf married Ellen Bischoff-Korthaus; they were both killed in a plane crash in Mexico in 1936, in a controlled flight into the side of a volcano. He was succeeded as head of the House of Schaumburg-Lippe by his brother Wolrad.
Prince Adolph's brother Prince Friedrich Christian, was the third son of Prince Georg. Friedrich's brother Adolf II was the "last German prince forced to abdicate".[69] After World War I, Friedrich Christian was an ardent Nazi Party supporter, worked vigorously to gain noble and royal support for the party, and eventually became an upper privy councillor and adjutant to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In 1939, Friedrich was asked to become King of Iceland by Icelanders sympathetic to the Nazi party, but refused due to the opposition of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Friedrich felt disillusioned by the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II, and even more unhappy over the "cowardly abdications" of the German princes in 1918.[70][full citation needed] The prince wished for a restoration of the monarchy, he believed that Adolf Hitler was also in accord with these views, writing in his diary, "Hitler was in principle for the monarchy, but not for the continuation of that which, in his opinion, had failed totally."[70] The prince "liked to think the "National Socialists as true heirs of the old nobility."[71][full citation needed]
The House of Schaumburg-Lippe had ten members in the Nazi party.[72] Hitler wanted these high-ranking members of society for propaganda reasons – the more who joined, the more socially acceptable his new regime would be.[1] Like Friedrich, and his brother Prince Wolrad, Hitler appointed many of these new members to the Sturmabteilung as stormtroopers.[73] Hitler made various assurances to the party's noble members, leading them to believe he intended to restore the monarchy.[74][full citation needed] Friedrich Christian was a speaker for the Nazi Party in 1929, and worked vigorously to gain the support of other noble families behind Hitler.[70][74][full citation needed] He worked closely with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels,[75] who gave him a position in the newly created Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.[76]
By April 1933, Friedrich Christian was both an upper privy councillor and Goebbels's adjutant.[76] That year, the prince arranged for the minister's involvement in the Berlin University book burning.[76] As evident from photographs and diaries during that time, Hitler and Goebbels both held Friedrich Christian in high esteem.[70] As World War II led to German military defeats, Hitler became more suspicious of royal and noble families, questioning their loyalties.[77] By 1943, he secretly ordered all Nazi bureaucracies to compile a record of members, and then personally decided if they were to be "retired" or allowed to stay.[78] Most of the princes were unwillingly booted out of the party as a result.[79] Goebbels went to Hitler to protect Friedrich Christian, who obtained a special waiver, for the prince's "future deployment in the Propaganda Ministry".
In 1947, four German princes—Friedrich Christian, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, Prince Philipp of Hesse, and Hereditary Prince Ernst of Lippe—were brought under arrest to the war crimes jail at Nuremberg in order to appear as witnesses in a portion of 16 trials of high-ranking Nazi criminals.[80] Viewed as an "old-line party member" who made propaganda excursions to many foreign countries on Goebbels's behalf, Friedrich Christian was the last of the four to testify.[80]
Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont
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(Abolished 13 November 1918)
Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont
Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (Friedrich Adolf Hermann Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont; 20 January 1865 – 26 May 1946) was the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, from 12 May 1893 to 13 November 1918.
Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont was the heir apparent to Waldeck and Pyrmont. At the end of World War I, his family lost their principality as Waldeck and Pyrmont became a Free State in the new Weimar Republic.
On 1 November 1929, Josias joined Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party, becoming a member of the SS in 1930. He was immediately appointed adjutant to Sepp Dietrich, a leading member of the SS, before becoming Heinrich Himmler's adjutant and staff chief in September 1930.[81] Waldeck-Pyrmont was elected as the Reichstag member for Düsseldorf-West in 1933 and was promoted to the rank of SS lieutenant general.[81] He was promoted again in 1939, to be the Higher SS and Police Leader for Weimar. In this position he had supervisory authority over Buchenwald concentration camp.[82] After World War II, he was sentenced to life in prison at the Buchenwald Trial (later commuted to 20 years) for his part in the "common plan" to violate the Laws and Usages of War in connection with prisoners of war held at Buchenwald concentration camp, but was released after serving about three years in prison. He was the nephew of William II, King of Württemberg, and Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Queen Regent of the Netherlands. He was also a cousin of Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands, and Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Prince Josias and his wife, Duchess Altburg of Oldenburg, were the parents of Wittekind, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler were Wittekind's godfathers.[36][page needed] Wittekind, who served in the German Armed Forces as a Lieutenant Colonel, succeeded as head of the House of Waldeck and Pyrmont when his father died on 30 November 1967.[83]
Principality of Reuss-Gera (Younger Line)
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(Abolished 11 November 1918)
Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line[citation needed]
At the death of his father on 29 March 1913, Heinrich inherited the throne of the principality; also, he continued the regency of the Reuss Elder Line, because of a physical and mental disability of Prince Heinrich XXIV due to an accident in the latter's childhood. Prince Heinrich XXVII abdicated in 1918 after the German Revolution of 1918–19, when all German monarchies were abolished. After the death of Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss Elder Line in 1927, the titles passed to Heinrich XXVII.
Heinrich XLV, Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line
Heinrich XLV was the head of the House of Reuss, and last male member of the Reuss-Schleiz branch of the Younger Line. Heinrich XLV was the only surviving son of Heinrich XXVII. During the 1930s Heinrich XLV became a Nazi sympathizer and member of the Nazi Party.[88] In 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet military and disappeared. In 1962, he was declared dead by a court in Büdingen.
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