Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia

Prince Louis Ferdinand
Prince of Prussia

Prince Louis Ferdinand in about 1930
Head of the House of Hohenzollern
Period 20 July 1951 – 26 September 1994
Predecessor Crown Prince Wilhelm
Successor Prince Georg Friedrich
Born (1907-11-09)9 November 1907
Marble Palace, Potsdam, German Empire
Died 26 September 1994(1994-09-26) (aged 86)
Bremen, Germany
Burial Hohenzollern Castle, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Spouse Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia
Issue Prince Friedrich Wilhelm
Prince Michael
Princess Marie Cécile
Princess Kira
Prince Louis Ferdinand
Prince Christian-Sigismund
Princess Xenia
Full name
Louis Ferdinand Victor Edward Albert Michael Hubert
House Hohenzollern
Father Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
Mother Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia (English: Louis Ferdinand Victor Edward Albert Michael Hubert, Prince of Prussia) (German: Louis Ferdinand Viktor Eduard Albert Michael Hubertus Prinz von Preussen) (9 November 1907 – 26 September 1994), a member of the Hohenzollern family, was the pretender to the abolished German monarchy, staunch opponent of the Nazi Party in Germany, a businessman, 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 non-royal from the lesser nobility in 1933 (he was later to be killed in action in France in 1940 fighting in the German army), Louis Ferdinand took his place as the second in the line of succession to the German throne after 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 20 July Plot against Hitler in 1944 but was interrogated by the Gestapo immediately afterwards and was imprisoned at Dachau.[1]

He married the Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia in 1938 in first a Russian Orthodox ceremony in Potsdam and then a Lutheran ceremony in Huis Doorn, Netherlands. Kira was the second daughter of Grand Duke Kyril Vladimirovich and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple 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-apparent, Prince Louis Ferdinand died in 1977 during military maneuvers, and thus his one-year-old grandson Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia (son of Prince Louis Ferdinand) became the new heir-apparent to the Prussian and German Imperial throne; Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia became the pretender to the thrones 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.

Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, a member of the senior Swabian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, is his godson.

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

Children

[2]

Prince Louis Ferdinand, in the carriage, and his elder brother, Wilhelm.

Titles, styles and honours

Styles of
Louis Ferdinand,
Prince of Prussia
Reference style His Imperial and Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Imperial and Royal Highness
Alternative style Sir

Titles

Honours

National dynastic honours

National honours

Foreign honours

Ancestry

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia.
Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia
Born: 9 November 1907 Died: 26 September 1994
Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Crown Prince Wilhelm
 TITULAR 
German Emperor
King of Prussia

20 July 1951 – 26 September 1994
Reason for succession failure:
Empire and Kingdom abolished in 1918
Succeeded by
Prince Georg Friedrich


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