The marriage of Prince Stephan of Schaumburg-Lippe(1891-1965) and Duchess Ingeborg of Oldenburg (1901-1996) was a good dynastic match. Prince Stephan was the 5th child of the late Georg, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, and Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. Ingeborg's father, Friedrich August, was the last reigning Grand Duke of Oldenburg. Her mother was Duchess Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The couple was married at Rastede on June 4, 1921. The groom was 29 and the bride, a month short of her 20th birthday.
The couple had two children. Prince Georg-Moritz (1924-1970) and Marie-Alix (1923.) In 1947, Princess Marie Alix married Peter, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein.
Prince Stephan was active in the Nazi Party. On June 3, 1940, he arrived in Montevideo, Uraguay, onboard the Brazilian passenger liner Argentina. He was on his way to Buenos Aires to be the counselor at the German embassy there. Onboard the ship, he asked the elevator boy if he could speak German, reported the New York Times. The young man replied no, to which Prince Stephan replied: "Well, you better learn it. You are going to need it."
A year later, Germany's Ambassador to Argentina, Edmund von Thermann, along with Prince Stephan and other counselors at the German embassy, were the subjects of legal proceedings in Argentina. The process was begun by the president of an Argentine congressional committee "investigating anti-Argentina activities."
The Argentine constitution placed diplomats under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in "exceptional cases." This meant that the three men were not subject to diplomatic immunity. This was based on comments made by them, and the German Reich press's attempt to infiltrate Argentine sovereignty. Von Thermann was eventually ordered out of the country.
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| David McIntosh collection |
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| David McIntosh collection |
According to Jonathan Petropoulos's Royals and the Reich, Stephan zu Schaumburg-Lippe joined the Nazi party on 1 October 1930 and was party member #309344.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I've not studied much about these lines and so wonder what became of the couple in their later years. Can you recommend some good further reading on the subject?
ReplyDeleteTori
ReplyDeleteNothing in English apart from David McIntosh's photo book on the Oldenburgs. Stephan was mentioned in Royals and the Reich but after the war, the family lived under the radar due to their support of National Socialism.
Thank you, Marlene. I think I'll look for Royals and the Reich. Sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Tori