Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia

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royal name=Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia
dipstyle=His Imperial and Royal Highness
offstyle=Your Imperial and Royal Highness
altstyle=His Royal Highness

Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia (English: Louis Ferdinand Victor Edward Albert Michael Hubert, Prince of Prussia) (German: Ludwig Ferdinand Viktor Eduard Albert Michael Hubertus, Prinz von Preussen) (November 9, 1907 - September 26, 1994), a member of the Hohenzollern family, was the pretender to the abolished German monarchy, staunch opponent of the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany, a business man, and patron of the arts.

Biography

Louis Ferdinand was born in Potsdam as the third in succession to the throne of the German Empire, after his father, German Crown Prince William and elder brother Prince Wilhelm of Prussia. The monarchy was abolished after Germany's revolution in 1918. When Louis Ferdinand's older brother Prince Wilhelm renounced his succession rights to marry a commoner in 1933 (he was later to be killed in action in France in 1940 fighting in the German army), Louis Ferdinand took his place in line for the throne following the deaths of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince.

Louis Ferdinand was educated in Berlin and deviated from his family's tradition by not pursuing a military career. Instead, he travelled extensively and settled for some time in Detroit, where he befriended Henry Ford and became acquainted with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, among others. He held a great interest in engineering. Recalled from the United States upon his brother's renunciation of the throne, he got involved in the German aviation industry, but was barred by Hitler from taking any active part in German military activities.

Louis Ferdinand dissociated himself from the Nazis after this. He was not involved in the July 20 Plot against Hitler in 1944 but was interrogated by the Gestapo immediately afterwards. [Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, "The Rebel Prince" (Chicago: Henry Reegnery, 1952): 306-324.]

He married the Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia in 1938 in first a Russian Orthodox in Potsdam and then Lutheran ceremony in Huis ten Doorn, Netherlands. Kira was the second daughter of Grand Duke Kyril Vladimirovich and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They had four sons and three daughters. His two eldest sons both renounced their succession rights in order to marry commoners. His third son, and heir, Prince Louis Ferdinand II died in 1977 during military maneuvers, and thus his eighteen-year-old grandson Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia became heir to the Prussian and Imperial throne and head of the Hohenzollern family upon Louis Ferdinand's death in 1994.

After the reunification of Germany, Louis Ferdinand arranged to have the remains of several Hohenzollern members reinterred at the imperial vault in Potsdam.

Louis Ferdinand was on friendly terms with the Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist Louis P. Lochner.

Children

* Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (b. February 10, 1939), married firstly Waltraud Freytag (b. 1940), secondly Ehrengard von Reden (b. 1943), thirdly Sibylle Kretschmer; he renounced his succession rights September 18 1967. Son Philip was from his first marriage. His other children were from his second marriage.
** Prince Philip Kirill of Prussia (b. 23 April 1968) Married 28 June 1994, Keil, Kronshagen to Anna Christine Soltau.
** Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (b. 16 August 1979)
** Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia (b. 2 May 1982)
** Prince Joachim-Albrecht of Prussia (b. 26 June 1984)
* Prince Michael of Prussia (b. March 22, 1940), married firstly Jutta Jorn (b. 27 January 1943), secondly Brigitte von Dallwitz (17 September 1939); he renounced his succession rights August 29 1966. Both of his children are from the first marriage.
** Micaela Prinzessin von Preussen (b. 5 March 1967)
** Nataly Prinzessin von Preussen (b. 13 January 1970)
* Princess Marie Cécile of Prussia (b. May 28, 1942)
* Princess Kira of Prussia (June 27, 1943–January 10, 2004)
* Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (August 25, 1944–July 11, 1977)
* Prince Christian-Sigismund of Prussia (born March 14, 1946)
* Princess Xenia of Prussia (December 9, 1949–January 18, 1992)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.eurohistory.com/hohenzollernheir.html European Royal History entry on Prince Louis-Ferdinand]
* [http://www.geocities.com/henrivanoene/genprussia.html Genealogy of the House of Prussia]

Ancestry

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1= 1. Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia
2= 2. William, German Crown Prince
3= 3. Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
4= 4. William II, German Emperor
5= 5. Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein
6= 6. Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
7= 7. Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia
8= 8. Frederick III, German Emperor
9= 9. Victoria, Princess Royal
10= 10. Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
11= 11. Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
12= 12. Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
13= 13. Princess Auguste Reuss of Köstritz
14= 14. Grand Duke Michael Nicolaevich of Russia
15= 15. Princess Cecilie of Baden
16= 16. William I, German Emperor
17= 17. Augusta of Saxe-Weimar
18= 18. Albert, Prince Consort
19= 19. Victoria of the United Kingdom
20= 20. Christian, Duke of Augustenborg
21= 21. Countess Lovisa-Sophie Danneskjold-Samsøe
22= 22. Ernst, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
23= 23. Princess Feodora of Leiningen
24= 24. Paul Frederick, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
25= 25. Princess Alexandrine of Prussia
26= 26. Heinrich LXIII, Prince Reuss of Köstritz
27= 27. Countess Eleonore of Stolberg-Wernigerode
28= 28. Nicholas I of Russia
29= 29. Princess Charlotte of Prussia
30= 30. Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden
31= 31. Princess Sophie of Sweden