Karl, Prince of Leiningen (1898–1946)

Karl, Prince of Leiningen (German: Friedrich Karl Eduard Erwin Fürst zu Leiningen; 13 February 1898  2 August 1946)[2] was the son of Emich, 5th Prince of Leiningen. He was the 6th Prince of Leiningen from 1939 until his death.

Karl
Prince of Leiningen
Tenure18 July 1939 – 2 August 1946
PredecessorPrince Emich
SuccessorPrince Emich Kirill
Born(1898-02-13)13 February 1898
Strassburg, Elsass-Löthringen German Empire (now France)[1]
Died2 August 1946(1946-08-02) (aged 48)
Saransk, Soviet Union (now Mordovia, Russia)
Spouse
Issue
Names
Friedrich Karl Eduard Erwin Fürst zu Leiningen
HouseLeiningen
FatherPrince Emich, 5th Prince of Leiningen
MotherPrincess Feodore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Military career
Allegiance Nazi Germany
ServiceKriegsmarine
Years of service1939–1945
RankCaptain
Battles/warsWorld War II

Early life

Karl was born at Straßburg, German Empire (which later became Strasbourg in France)[1] (some websites have erroneously give Straßburg, Austria[3]), the second child and first son of Emich, 5th Prince of Leiningen (1866–1939) (son of Ernst Leopold, 4th Prince of Leiningen and Princess Marie Amelie of Baden) and his wife, Princess Feodore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1866–1932) (daughter of Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Leopoldine of Baden). Through his father he was descendant of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.

Marriage

Karl married on 25 November 1925 in Langenburg to Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia (1907–1951), eldest child of Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia and his wife, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his third cousin through descent from Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. (Karl is descended from the son of Victoria's first marriage and Maria's descent is from the daughter of Victoria's second marriage).

They had seven children:

  • Princess Kira of Leiningen (18 July 1930 – 24 September 2005) married Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia on 18 September 1963 and they were divorced on 10 July 1972. They had three children and four grandchildren.
  • Princess Mechtilde of Leiningen (2 January 1936 – 12 February 2021) married Karl Bauscher on 25 November 1961. They had three sons and three grandchildren.
  • Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Berthold of Leiningen (18 June 1938 – 29 August 1998) married Karin Göss on 9 July 1960 and they were divorced in 1962. He remarried Helga Eschenbacher on 23 August 1971.
  • Prince Peter Viktor of Leiningen (23 December 1942 – 12 January 1943)

Prince of Leiningen

He joined the Nazi Party (membership number 4.852.615) in 1937,[4] and on the death of his father in 1939, Karl succeeded as the 6th Prince of Leiningen.

Prisoner of War

He was a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union where he died in 1946 at Saransk (now Mordovia, Russia).[5]

Ancestry

Notes and sources

  1. Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, vol. 117, p. 265
  2. Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Volume 133, p. 249.
  3. Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Friedrich Karl Eduard Erwin VI Fürst zu Leiningen". Retrieved 10 May 2005.
  4. http://niqolas.de/weltlauf/adel.pdf
  5. Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987). Hereinafter cited as Queen Victoria's Descendants.
  • Queen Victoria's Descendants, New York, 1987., Eilers, Marlene A., Reference: 195
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