The death of Princess Irmingard of Bavaria

Princess Irmingard of Bavaria has died, according to an announcement from the Duke of Bavaria's office.  The princess died on Saturday at her home, Schloss Leutstetten.  She was 88 years old.

The princess was the widow of Prince Ludwig, who died in 2008.

Princess Irmingard was born in 1923 at Schloss Berchtesgaden, one of six children of Crown Prince Rupprecht and his second wife, Princess Antonia of Luxembourg.  During the second world war, the princess and members of her family were persecuted by the Nazis, and were imprisoned in concentration camps.  Irmingard's mother, Antonia, never recovered from the ill-treatment she received in the camps, and she died in Switzerland in 1954.  The princess wrote about her youth in the book, Jugend Erinnerungen 1923-1950.

Princess was sent to England in 1936 to attend a Roman Catholic boarding school, Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton.  Several other members of her family also attended the school.  Four years later, the princess and her sisters and brothers were given permission to go to Italy, where their father was living.  Rupprecht had left Germany because he opposed the Nazis. 

 

On March 29, 1936, the AP reported that the Crown Prince and his wife, "were among the few who dared to stand out today against the Nazi steamroller and refused to vote in the Reichstag election."

Stormtroopers showed up at Rupprecht's home to remind the 66-year-old heir to the former Bavarian throne that he had not yet voted, Crown Prince Rupprecht "politely refused."  He also refused to fly the Nazi flag from his home.

In 1941, United Press reported that King Michael of Roumania was in Florence, Italy, to meet with his mother, Helen, "about a marriage offer received through German authorities."  The reports state that the Germans want King Michael to marry Princess Irmingard.   The Germans were anxious for Michael to marry and provide Roumania with an heir to the throne "as a means of blocking the possible return of King Carol."

 After the German invasion of Italy,  the Nazis tried to find Prince Rupprecht, and arrest him.  They were unsuccessful.  But they did arrest Irmingard, who was tossed into prison.  She was transferred to a prison hospital in Innsbruck where she was treated for typhus.  She recounted in her memoirs that after she had recovered from her illness she was sent to Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen, where other members of her family were already being held.

They did not stay long at Oranienburg, and soon, the Nazis transferred them to Flossenburg, and, eventually Dachau,  where the family was liberated by American soldiers on April 30, 1945.  The family did not go back to Germany but traveled to Luxembourg to stay with Antonia's older sister, Grand Duchess Charlotte.   Irmingard also traveled to the United States to visit her aunt Hilda and uncle, Prince Adolf of Schwarzberg, who owned a ranch in Montana. 

In 1950, Irmingard married her first cousin, Prince Ludwig.  The couple had one son, Prince Luitpold, and two daughters, Maria and Philippa, both of whom died shortly after birth in 1953 and 1954, respectively.

The funeral will be held on November 4 at the Theatinerkirche in Munich.   The princess is survived by her son, Prince Luitpold, and five grandchildren, Princess Alice, Princess Auguste, Prince Ludwig, Prince Heinrich, and Prince Karl,   She is also survived by three of her younger sisters, Princess Editha, Princess Gabriele, Duchess of Croy, and Princess Sophie. Duchess of Arenberg, and many nieces and nephews.

The photo of Princess Irmingard was taken last summer when her granddaughter, Princess Auguste of Bavaria married Prince Ferdinand zur Lippe.  Photo credit: Ulrike Bartsch.