| Albrecht | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke of Bavaria | |||||
.jpg) Albrecht in 1948 | |||||
| Head of theHouse of Wittelsbach | |||||
| Tenure | 2 August 1955 – 8 July 1996 | ||||
| Predecessor | Rupprecht | ||||
| Successor | Franz | ||||
| Born | (1905-05-03)3 May 1905 Munich,Kingdom of Bavaria,German Empire | ||||
| Died | 8 July 1996(1996-07-08) (aged 91) Berg Castle,Starnberg,Bavaria,Germany | ||||
| Burial | Wittelsbach cemetery,Andechs Abbey,Bavaria | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue |
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| House | Wittelsbach | ||||
| Father | Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria | ||||
| Mother | Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria | ||||
Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria (Albrecht Luitpold Ferdinand Michael; 3 May 1905 – 8 July 1996[1]) was the son of the last crown prince of Bavaria,Rupprecht, and his first wife,Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria. He was the only child from that marriage who reached adulthood. His paternal grandfather wasLudwig III of Bavaria, the lastking of Bavaria, who was deposed in 1918.
Following theFirst World War, Albrecht's grandfather King Ludwig wasdeposed. Albrecht and the family temporarily moved from Bavaria to theAustrian Tyrol.[1]
His family, theHouse of Wittelsbach, were opposed to the regime ofNazi Germany and refused to join theNazi Party. His father, the former Crown Prince Rupprecht, earned Hitler's enmity by opposing theBeer Hall Putsch in 1923. In 1933, shortly afterAdolf Hitler's rise to power, he sent his son Albrecht to PresidentPaul von Hindenburg with a protest letter strongly objecting to the appointment of governors at the head of the federal states and thus the de facto abolition of German federalism. This public opposition meant that Prince Albrecht, who had studied forestry, was prevented from completing his studies.[1] In July 1934, Albrecht emigrated toHungary with his family. From 1935 to 1939 the family returned to Bavaria and lived in seclusion inKreuth, but his father emigrated to Italy in 1939 and Albrecht and his family moved back toBudapest, where they stayed in a rented apartment in theCastle Quarter. They often visited his wife's Hungarian and Croatian relatives in the countryside, as well as Albrecht's unclePrince Franz of Bavaria at his Nádasdy Castle inSárvár. The children received private lessons. Albrecht took over the management of court hunting for the Prince RegentPaul of Yugoslavia until 1941.[2]
In September 1943, the German Armyoccupied Italy and the former crown prince went into hiding in Florence. In October 1944, after Germany had occupied Hungary in March, Albrecht and his family were arrested by theGestapo in the Erdődy mansion inDoba, Hungary, and deported to theSachsenhausen concentration camp.[1] Together with his wife, his four children and three of his half-sisters, they were held captive as “special prisoners” and then transported to theFlossenbürg andDachau concentration camps. Albrecht almost died of dysentery. Badly hit by hunger and disease, the family barely survived. His son Franz writes in his memoirs that they only received one slice of bread, often moldy, per person per day as food. Despite the dramatic situation, according to him, his parents behaved “completely confidently from the start”. “My father used his aggressiveness as his only weapon and attacked anyone who came too close to him.”[3]
Towards the end of the war, they were interned with other special prisoners, including the family ofGeneral Paulus, in a former hotel on LakePlansee (Tyrol), but had to remain there under military guard even after they were liberated by theUnited States Third Army. After a while, Albrecht and his family fled toLinderhof and hid there with a forest ranger. Finally, together with numerous refugees from Hungary, they moved into an outbuilding of Leutstetten Castle nearStarnberg, which was occupied by an Allied commission, where after some time the former crown prince also returned from Rome.[4]
Since 1949 Albrecht lived atBerg Palace (Bavaria), 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Munich onLake Starnberg, in relative seclusion until the end of his life. His son Franz remembers: “He came back after being away for many years, having previously experienced a decade of severe disappointments - including on a human level. He came back to a country where almost all of his real friends had been murdered or fallen. And he had mostly bad memories of some of the people who had survived and whom he met back then... For him, many places were contaminated by the Nazi era. He came back to a Bavaria that was no longerhis Bavaria. The resulting isolation accompanied him throughout his life.”[5]
Albrecht became head of the deposed royal family of Bavaria with the death of his father on 2 August 1955. As head of the House of Wittelsbach, Albrecht was also Grand Master of the WittelsbachHouse Orders, theOrder of Saint George, theOrder of St. Hubert and theOrder of Theresa. On Christmas Eve 1952, Albrecht of Bavaria was invested in the Knights'Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; he was president of its Bavarian Order Province.
The Duke appeared in public on important occasions. In order to remain present, he established the annual receptions by the head of the House of Wittelsbach atNymphenburg Palace, which are still held today, to which around 1,500 guests from state politics, municipalities, churches and sciences, art and medicine as well as friends and relatives are invited.[6]
In 1959 Albrecht, in an official ceremony, returned theGreek crown jewels (originally made for a Bavarian prince who reigned as Greece's first modern monarch, KingOtto) to the Greek nation, accepted by KingPaul of Greece. Together with his son Franz and a daughter, he had taken part in the ship tours organized by KingPaul of Greece andQueen Frederica in 1954 and 1956, which became known as the “Cruises of the Kings” and were attended by over 100 royals from all over Europe.[7]
In 1980 Albrecht presided over sumptuous ceremonies in Bavaria celebrating the 800th anniversary of the ascension of the House of Wittelsbach to the Bavarian throne.[8]
Albrecht was a prolifichunter and deer researcher, collecting 3,425 sets ofantlers, now partially shown in a permanent exhibition on his research activities in the former royal castle atBerchtesgaden. He also wrote two books on "the habits of deer"[1] for which he (and his second wife) receivedhonorary doctorates by the biological faculty of theLudwig Maximilian University of Munich. While visiting Brazil in 1953, where he acquired afazenda in the rainforest, he encounteredBrazilian Mastiffs and took some to Germany, introducing the dog breed to Europe.
Albrecht died on 8 July 1996, aged 91, at Berg Palace. His funeral atTheatine Church, Munich was conducted byFriedrich Wetter, theArchbishop of Munich.[1] He was buried in the family graveyard he himself had installed in 1977 atAndechs Abbey.
As the eldest surviving son of the eldest son ofArchduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1849–1919), recognized byJacobites as "Queen Mary IV (of England) and III (of Scotland)",[9] he was also the dynastic representative andheir-general of England, Scotland and Ireland's lastStuart king, James II and VII, deposed in 1688.[10]
Albrecht married Countess MariaDraskovich of Trakostjan (8 March 1903 inVienna – 10 June 1969 inWildbad Kreuth) on 3 September 1930 inBerchtesgaden.[11] She was the only child of Count Dionys Maria Draskovich of Trakostjan (1875-1909) and his wife, Princess Juliana Rose vonMontenuovo (1880-1961) (a great-granddaughter ofMarie-Louise of Austria, sometimeEmpress of the French), belonging to a family of an ancientCroatian nobility known since 1230 and madeImperial counts in 1631.[12] Although the couple were related, both sharing descent fromLeopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Albrecht's father allowed the wedding, aWittelsbach family council concluded that the marriage was non-compliant with the dynasty's marital tradition as set out in its historicalHouse laws,[12] and the names of the couple's four children were excluded from theAlmanach de Gotha.[13][11] In 1948, however, a juridical consultation advised that the head of the house has sole authority to determine the validity of marriages within the House of Wittelsbach, prompting Crown Prince Rupprecht to recognize Albrecht's marriage asdynastic on 18 May 1949.[8][12]
On 21 April 1971 inWeichselboden, Albrecht married Countess Marie-EugenieJenkeKeglevich of Buzin (23 April 1921 inBudapest – 5 October 1983 in Weichselboden), also member of an old Croatian nobility, known since the beginning of the 14th century. She was the youngest daughter of Count Stephan Keglevich of Buzin (1880-1962) and his wife, Countess Klára Mária Theodora Paulina Antonia JosefaZichy of Zich and Vásonkeö (1883-1971). The marriage produced no children.[12]
At the time of his death, Albrecht had four children from his first marriage, fifteen grandchildren and twenty-six great-grandchildren. His children are:
Albrecht was styledPrinz von Bayern (Prince of Bavaria) at birth.[14] After the death of his father in 1955 he changed his style toHerzog von Bayern (Duke of Bavaria).[15]
As head of the House of Wittelsbach, Albrecht was traditionally styled as His Royal Highness the Duke of Bavaria, ofFranconia and inSwabia,[16]Count Palatine of the Rhine.[17]
Württemberg Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of theRoyal Order of the Crown, Special Class[citation needed]
Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Family: Knight of theOrder of the Golden Fleece,1953[18]
Vatican: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre[19]
Liechtenstein: Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Grand Star[citation needed]Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria Born: 3 May 1905 Died: 8 July 1996 | ||
| Titles in pretence | ||
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| Preceded by | — TITULAR — King of Bavaria 2 August 1955 – 8 July 1996 Reason for succession failure: Kingdom abolished in 1918 | Succeeded by |
| — TITULAR — King of England, Scotland and Ireland 2 August 1955 – 8 July 1996 Reason for succession failure: Act of Settlement 1701 | ||
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