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Ernst II
Ernst II, when Hereditary Prince
Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Tenure9 March 1913 – 11 December 1950
PredecessorHermann VI
SuccessorGottfried
Born(1863-09-13)13 September 1863
Langenburg, Kingdom of Württemberg
Died11 December 1950(1950-12-11) (aged 87)
Langenburg, West Germany
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1896; died 1942)​
IssueGottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Marie Melita, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein
Princess Alexandra
Princess Irma
Prince Alfred
FatherHermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
MotherPrincess Leopoldine of Baden

Ernst, 7th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (Ernst Wilhelm Friedrich Carl Maximilian; 13 September 1863 – 11 December 1950) was a German aristocrat and Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. He served as 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.

Biography

Family

Born in Langenburg, Kingdom of Württemberg on 13 September 1863, Ernst was the oldest of three children, and the only son, of Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Princess Leopoldine of Baden, daughter of Prince William of Baden. He was the grand-nephew of Queen Victoria, His paternal great-grandmother was Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the mother of Queen Victoria, and his grandmother was Feodora of Leiningen, Queen Victoria's half-sister. He married the Queen's granddaughter, Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh, daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, on 20 April 1896 at the Ehrenburg Palace (Schloss Ehrenburg) in Coburg, Germany.

Education

After finishing high school in Karlsruhe, the young prince studied law in Paris, Bonn, Tübingen and Leipzig, where he graduated in 1885 with the first legal exam in Naumburg. He also gained membership in the Corps Suevia Tübingen (1st Class) in 1884, when he was at the University of Tübingen and Borussia Bonn in 1886, because he had gone to the University of Bonn.[1] After his officer training in Berlin-Lichterfelde (1886-1891), he passed the diplomatic examination (1890-1891) with the appointment as Secretary of the Imperial German Embassy in St. Petersburg and London (1891-1894). In the following years he worked in Strasbourg as an assistant for his father, Prince Hermann, the Imperial Governor of Alsace-Lorraine, and prepared himself for his future as a Peer of the Kingdom of Württemberg.

Career

Because his wife was the daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Ernst became the Regent of the Duchy after the death of the Duke. From 30 July 1900 to 18 July 1905, he governed Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on the behalf of the still immature successor, Charles Edward. In 1901, Ernst was awarded with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Württemberg.[2] Afterwards, he made several unsuccessful attempts to gain a foothold in the politics of the German Empire. He served as the Head of the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office (1906–1906) and the Deputy (1907–1911) and Vice President (1909–1910) of the Reichstag. In 1913, on the death of his father, Ernst became the Prince of Hohelohe-Langeburg, entitling him to sit in the Kammer der Standesherren [House of Lords] of Württemberg, where he had already been serving as his father's deputy since 1895. He would keep his seat until the November Revolution of 1918. During the First World War, the Prince was active as a volunteer in the military hospitals as well as the General Delegate to the Eastern Front and Imperial Commissioner and military inspector. He was also sent in 1915 as a special envoy to Constantinople and the Balkans to assume the duties of the envoy Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim who had fallen ill.

Relationship with the Nazi Party

After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Ernst joined his son (who had already entered in 1931) in the Nazi Party with the membership number of 3726902.[3]

Retirement

After the Second World War, Ernst retired to private life. His wife, who suffered from various illnesses died in 1942. Ernst was dedicated to church and nursing activities and was a member of the German Evangelical Church Assembly (the Kirchentag), Commander of the Württemberg-Badenschen Genossenschaft (Württemberg-Baden Cooperative), Governor of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg Order of St. John, Honorary President of the Württemberg State Association of the Red Cross as well as of the Evangelical People's League of Württemberg (Evangelischen Volksbund für Württemberg). On 11 December 1950, Ernst died at the age 87 at Langenburg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany.

Children

The children of Prince Ernst and Princess Alexandra of Hohelohe-Langenburg were descended from both Queen Victoria and Victoria's half-sister Feodora of Leiningen. They were:

Honours and awards

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ (in German) Otto Gerlach, Kösener Corpslisten 1960 (Bochum: Verbandes Alten Corpsstudenten [Association of Old Students Corps], 1961), Corps List 129, p. 381; Corps List 9, p. 713
  2. ^ (in German) Königliches Statistisches Landesamt [Royal State Office of Statistics], Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Württemberg 1907, Erster Teil [Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1907, First Part] (Stuttgart: W[ilhelm]. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1907), p. 31
  3. ^ (in German) Ernst Klee, Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 [The Cultural Dictionary of the Third Reich: Who was What Before and After 1945] (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2007), p. 261.
  4. ^ "Königliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg, Stuttgart: Landesamt, 1907, pp. 32, 78
  5. ^ "Rother Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (supp.) (in German), vol. 1, Berlin: Gedruckt in der Reichsdruckerei, 1895, p. 14 – via hathitrust.org
  6. ^ Shaw, William Arthur (1906). The Knights of England. Vol. 1. London: Sharrett & Hughes. p. 215.
  7. ^ Sachsen (1901). "Königlich Orden". Staatshandbuch für den Königreich Sachsen: 1901. Dresden: Heinrich. p. 190 – via hathitrust.org.
  8. ^ "Großherzogliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (in German), Karlsruhe, 1910, p. 43((citation)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Bibliography

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Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg House of Hohenlohe-LangenburgCadet branch of the House of HohenloheBorn: 13 September 1863 Died: 11 December 1950 German nobility Preceded byHermann Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg 1913–1919 Succeeded byGerman nobility titles abolished Titles in pretence Loss of title — TITULAR — Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg 1919–1950Reason for succession failure:German nobility titles abolished Succeeded byGottfried
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