Friday, May 27, 2011

Princess Luise leaves estate to nephew

May 27, 1901


Princess Luise of Prussia, who died recently at the age of 73,  has left her fortune and her "beautiful Chateau of Monfort on the shores of Lake Constance," to her nephew, Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse, whose wife, Princess Margarete of Prussia, recently gave birth to a second set of twin sons.

Princess Luise was the eldest daughter of Prince Karl of Prussia, younger brother of Emperor Wilhelm I.  She was married to Landgrave Alexis of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld but the marriage ended in divorce in 1861.  An extremely religious woman,  Luise was not seen as the wronged woman in the divorce.  It was her former husband who received all the sympathy for having to live with such an "intolerable" woman,  and was described as having "all the patience of a saint."

In reality, Princess Luise suffered from mental illness, which made the divorce possible.

The marriage between Prince Alexis and Princess Luise took place at Charlottenburg on June 27, 1854.  There were no children.  Neither remarried.

Princess Luise bought Schloss Monfort from the Württemberg royal family in 1873. She used the castle as a summer residence until she died in 1901.  A year later, Prince Friedrich Karl sold the property to Wilhelm Oliver von Leube, a professor of Medicine at the University of Würzburg.  In 1940, the German Railway bought the property to use as a rest home for their employees.  But due to the war, the property remained unused.  The Schloss was sold several more times, and is now owned by the local town, Langenargen, and is now open as a restaurant and nightclub.

http://www.vemax-gastro.de/

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