29th July 1934
Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick
Postcard depicting Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick and his family. Ref: 29.07.1934
Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick
and family
Ernst August (1887-1953). He was a grandson of George V of Hanover, thus a Prince of Hanover and a Prince of the United Kingdom. He was also a maternal grandson of Christian IX of Denmark and the son-in-law of German Emperor Wilhelm II. The Prussians had deposed King George from the Hanoverian throne in 1866, but his marriage ended the decades-long feud between the Prussians and the Hanoverians.
While Ernest Augustus never officially joined the Nazi Party, he donated funds and was close to several leaders. As a former British prince, Ernest Augustus, as well as Victoria Louise, desired a rapprochement between the United Kingdom and Germany. Ostensibly desiring to pursue an alliance with the UK, in the mid-1930s, Adolf Hitler took advantage of their sentiment by asking the couple to arrange a match between their daughter Princess Frederica and the Prince of Wales. The Duke and Duchess of Brunswick refused, believing that the age difference was too great.
After his abdication in 1936, Edward VIII and his wife visited 'the Cumberlands' at Cumberland Castle in Gmunden, Austria. In 1938 Princess Frederica married Prince Paul of Greece, brother and heir-presumptive of King George II of Greece.
By the time the Second World War ended in Europe in April 1945, he and his family were staying at Blankenburg. A few days before Blankenburg was handed over to the Red Army by British and U.S. forces in late 1945, to become part of East Germany, the family was able to move to Marienburg Castle, at the time located in the British Occupation Zone, with all their furniture, transported by British Army trucks, on the order of King George VI.
Viktoria Luise (1892-1980). The only daughter and youngest child of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Through her father, Victoria Louise was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Several of Victoria Louise's brothers were early members of the Nazi party, including former Crown Prince Wilhelm and Prince August Wilhelm. While Ernest Augustus never officially joined the party, he donated funds and was close to several leaders.
By the time of the war's ending in Europe in April 1945, Victoria Louise was living with her husband at Blankenburg Castle.
Ernst August (1914-1987). Head of the House of Hanover from 1953 until his death in 1987. From his birth until the German Revolution of 1918–1919 he was the heir apparent to the Duchy of Brunswick, a state of the German Empire.
During World War II, he fought at the Russian Front as Oberleutnant in the staff of Generaloberst Erich Hoepner. He was seriously injured near Kharkiv in spring 1943. After the 20th July plot in 1944, he was imprisoned for a few weeks by the Gestapo in Berlin.
He had joined the SS in 1933 and remained a member for one year. His official 'denazification' certificate from 1949 vetting his Third Reich associations classified him as 'a nominal Nazi supporter', without being a Nazi party member, and according to a Foreign Office record.
In 1938 his sister, Princess Frederica had married the later King Paul I of the Hellenes and in 1946 his younger brother Prince George William married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, thus becoming the brother-in-law of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Georg Wilhelm (1915-2006). The second-eldest son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, the only daughter of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
From 1930 through 1934, Prince George William attended the elite boarding school Schule Schloss Salem in Ãœberlingen on Lake Constance. Schule Schloss Salem was co-founded by the prince's uncle, the last Chancellor of the German Empire, Prince Maximilian of Baden, and educator Kurt Hahn in 1920.
With George William having completed his law studies at the University of Göttingen in 1948, he was approached by his brother-in-law, Berthold, Margrave of Baden, to take over the management of the Salem Castle School, which had since been closed due to the Second World War. A former student of the institution, the prince then went to Scotland with his wife to meet with Kurt Hahn, the founder of the school, and to visit Gordonstoun, the establishment that the latter founded when he had to flee Nazi Germany because of his Jewish origins. The family remained in Salem until 1959, when George William gave up his post of school director.
The horse lover George William, who had belonged to the German eventing team before the Second World War, later built up the riding academy in Munich-Riem. For many years Prince George William was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and of the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (DOSB), the German NOC.
Prince George William of Hanover lived in Schliersee, near Munich, and died in Munich in 2006 aged 90. His wife, Sophie, sister of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, died in 2001.
Source: Wikipedia
Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page