A princess reclining

Marlene A Eilers Koenig Collection

In April 1907,the Prince and Princess of Schaumburg-Lippe celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.  They received a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II, who presented the couple with the family's ancestral seat, Schloss Schaumburg, in Ritelen, Prussia, near the Schaumburg border.

The gift, according to the New York Times, "is doubtless in recognition of Prince Georg's services in supporting the Kaiser's candidate in the recent dispute over the succession to the throne of Lippe-Detmold."

The castle was acquired by the Kaiser's grandfather, Wilhelm I, when Schaumburg-Lippe "threw in its lot with Austria," against Prussia in 1866.

Georg, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe (1846-1911) married Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenberg (1864-1918) at Altenberg on April 16, 1882.  They had nine children.  Their eldest son, Adolf II, renounced the throne in November 1916.  He and his wife, Ellen Bischoff-Korthaus, were killed in an air crash in Mexico in March 1936.  He was succeed by his brother, Wolrad, who was married to a cousin, Princess Bertha of Schaumburg-Lippe.  Another son, Prince Stephan, married Duchess Ingeborg of Oldenburg.