HRH Princess Hubertus of Prussia died on October 10, 2009, at Schloss Löwenstein, Kleinheubach, the home of her daughter, Anastasia, the Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. She was 89 years old, and the last surviving daughter-in-law of Crown Prince Wilhelm.
Princess Hubertus was born HSH Princess Magdalene Reuss on August 20, 1920, at Leipzig, the elder daughter of Prince Heinrich XXXVI Reuss and his wife, Princess Hermine of Schönburg-Waldenburg. The princess married Prince Hubertus of Prussia on June 5,1943 at Schloss Prillwitz, Mecklenburg.
Prince Hubertus, the third son of the former Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, was married twice. His first wife was Baroness Maria Anna von Humboldt-Dachdroeden, whom he married on December 29, 1941. The marriage was dissolved by divorce a year later.
Prince Hubertus, who had served in the German military, and his wife settled briefly in Silesia. However, with the advancing Red Army, Prince and Princess Hubertus, and their infant daughter, Anastasia, were forced to flee to the west. They were able to find a home with the Prince and Princess of Ysenburg-Büdingen. The Princess was a cousin of Princess Hubertus.
In 1947, Prince Hubertus found work managing several wineries. That same year, Princess Hubertus gave birth to a second daughter, Marie Christine.
After receiving a British exit permit from Germany in January 1950, Prince Hubertus, then only 40, moved to South-West Africa to begin a new life as a sheep farmer. He had chosen the former German colony because it "was a haven of rest far distant from the political turmoil in Germany." Prince Hubertus found that the "spirit of imperial days survives among the German element in the former colony."
The prince had leased a sheep farm near Windhoek, and it was reported in March 1950, that his wife and children planned to join him in the summer. The ranch was previously owned by Hubertus's grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was inherited by Hubertus' British-based younger brother, Prince Friedrich.
In early April 1950, Prince Hubertus was stricken with appendicitis. Complications followed, and he died from peritonitis. Princess Hubertus was at her husband's bedside when he died.
The princess raised her two daughters, Princess Anastasia and Princess Marie Christine, in Germany. In 1965, Princess Anastasia married the then Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. A year later, Princess Marie Christine was killed in an auto accident.
Princess Hubertus will be buried next to her husband at Burg Hohenzollern. She is survived by her daughter, Anastasia, and son-in-law, Aloys Konstantin, 9th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenburg, four grandchildren, Carl-Friedrich, Hubertus, Christina Maria, and Dominik, and eight great-grandchildren.
1 comment:
Wow. Widowed for almost 60 years! And she lost one of her children in an accident, too. Poor lady.
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