Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (german: Hermine, Prinzessin Reuß zu Greiz;
[Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, pp. 248-249,302. ]["Almanach de Gotha", ''Russie'', (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pp. 90, 97, (French).] 17 December 1887 – 7 August 1947) was the second wife of
Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...
. They were married in 1922, four years after he abdicated as
German Emperor
The German Emperor (german: Deutscher Kaiser, ) was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the offi ...
and
King of Prussia
The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...
. He was her second husband; her first husband, Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath, had died in 1920.
Early life
Princess Hermine was born in
Greiz
Greiz () is a town in the state of Thuringia, Germany, and is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia, east of state capital Jena, on the river ''White Elster''.
Greiz has a large park in its center (Fürstl ...
as the fifth child and fourth daughter of
Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz
Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz (28 March 1846 – 19 April 1902) was the reigning sovereign of Reuss-Greiz, a small principality of the German states, from 1859 until his death in 1902.Martin (1879), p. 173.
Reign
Heinrich succeeded as rei ...
(28 March 1846 – 19 April 1902), and
Princess Ida Mathilde Adelheid of Schaumburg-Lippe (28 July 1852 – 28 September 1891), daughter of
Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
Adolphus I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe (''Adolf Georg''; 1 August 1817 – 8 May 1893) was a ruler of the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe.
Biography
He was born in Bückeburg to Georg Wilhelm, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Ida of Wal ...
. Her father was the ruler of the
Principality of Reuss-Greiz
The Principality of Reuss-Greiz (german: Fürstentum Reuß-Greiz), called the Principality of the Reuss Elder Line (german: Fürstentum Reuß älterer Linie) after 1848, was a sovereign state in modern Germany, ruled by members of the House of ...
, a state of the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
, in what is present-day
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. Princess Hermine's disabled elder brother became
Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz
Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz (german: Heinrich XXIV Fürst Reuß zu Greiz; 20 March 187813 October 1927) was the last reigning Prince Reuss of Greiz from 1902 to 1918. Then he became head of the House Reuss of Greiz, which became extinct ...
in 1902.
First marriage
Princess Hermine was married on 7 January 1907 in Greiz to Prince Johann George Ludwig Ferdinand August of Schönaich-Carolath (11 September 1873 – 7 April 1920).
They were the parents of five children:
* Prince Hans Georg Heinrich Ludwig Friedrich Hermann Ferdinand of
Schönaich-Carolath (3 November 1907 – 9 August 1943), married Baroness Sibylle von Zedlitz und Leipe,
killed in action at the
Eastern Front during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
* Prince Georg Wilhelm of Schönaich-Carolath (16 March 1909 – 1 November 1927), died unmarried.
* Princess Hermine Caroline Wanda Ida Luise Feodora Viktoria Auguste of Schönaich-Carolath (9 May 1910 – 30 May 1959), married Hugo Herbert
Hartung Hartung is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
{{surname, Hartung
* Billy Hartung (actor) (b. 1971), American actor and dancer
* Clint Hartung (1922–2010), former Major League Baseball player
* Eugen Hartung (1897–1973), Swiss ...
.
* Prince Ferdinand Johann Georg Hermann Heinrich Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich August of Schönaich-Carolath (5 April 1913 – 17 October 1973), married Rose
Rauch (1912-1987), then Baroness Margarethe von
Seckendorff (1908-1991).
*
Princess ''Henriette'' Hermine Wanda Ida Luise of Schönaich-Carolath (25 November 1918 – 16 March 1972), married Wilhelm II's grandson
Prince Karl Franz of Prussia
Prince Karl Franz Josef Wilhelm Friedrich Eduard Paul of Prussia (15 December 1916 – 23 January 1975) was the only child of Prince Joachim of Prussia and his wife Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt. He was also the grandson of Wilhelm II, German ...
(son of
Prince Joachim of Prussia
Prince Joachim Franz Humbert of Prussia (17 December 1890 – 18 July 1920) was the youngest son and sixth child of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, by his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He committed suicide at age 29.
Prince J ...
) in 1940 and had issue.
Marriage to ex-Emperor Wilhelm II
In January 1922, a son of Princess Hermine sent birthday wishes to the exiled
German Emperor
The German Emperor (german: Deutscher Kaiser, ) was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the offi ...
Wilhelm II, who then invited the boy and his mother to
Huis Doorn
Huis Doorn (; en, Doorn Manor) is a manor house and national museum in the town of Doorn in the Netherlands. The residence has early 20th-century interiors from the time when former German Emperor Wilhelm II resided there (1919–1941).
Huis Do ...
. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. The two had much in common, both being recently widowed: Hermine just over a year and a half before and Wilhelm only nine months prior.
By early 1922, Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine. Despite grumblings from Wilhelm's monarchist supporters and the objections of his children, 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on 5 November 1922 in
Doorn
Doorn is a town in the municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht.
History
In a document from 885 to 896, the settlement is called "Thorhem", dwelling of Thor, the God of Thunder. Vikings quarte ...
. Wilhelm's physician, Alfred Haehner, suspected that Hermine had married the former ''
kaiser
''Kaiser'' is the German word for "emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (''König''). In English, the (untranslated) word ''Kaiser'' is mainly ap ...
'' only in the belief that she would become an empress and that she had become increasingly bitter as it became apparent that would not be the case.
Shortly before the couple's first wedding anniversary, Haehner recorded how Hermine had told him how "inconsiderately
ilhelmbehaved towards her" and how Wilhelm's face showed "a strong dislike" for his wife.
[Röhl pp1211-3] Hermine's first husband had also been older than she was, by fourteen years. Wilhelm and Hermine were fourth cousins once removed through mutual descent from
Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Ludwig) (15 December 1719 – 6 April 1790) was the reigning Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1768 to 1790.
Louis IX and his wife became the most recent common ancestors of all current European monarchs ...
and fifth cousins through common descent from
King George II of Great Britain
, house = Hanover
, religion = Protestant
, father = George I of Great Britain
, mother = Sophia Dorothea of Celle
, birth_date = 30 October / 9 November 1683
, birth_place = Herrenhausen Palace,Cannon. or Leine ...
.
In 1927, Hermine wrote ''An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn'', an account of her life until then. She cared for the property management of Huis Doorn and by establishing her own relief organization, she stayed in contact with monarchist and nationalist circles in the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
. Hermine also shared her husband's
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
.
She remained a constant companion to the aging emperor until his death in 1941. They had no children.
Later life
Following the death of Wilhelm, Hermine returned to Germany to live on her first husband's estate in
Saabor,
Lower Silesia
Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...
. During the
Vistula–Oder Offensive of early 1945, she fled from the advancing
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
to her sister's estate in
Rossla, Thuringia. After the end of the Second World War, she was held under
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
at
Frankfurt on the Oder
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
, in the
Soviet occupation zone
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
, and later imprisoned in the Paulinenhof Internment Camp. On 7 August 1947, aged 59, she died suddenly of a heart attack in a small flat in Frankfurt, while under guard by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
occupation forces. She was buried in the
Antique Temple
The Antique Temple is a small round temple in the west part of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. Frederick the Great had the building constructed to house his collection of classical works of art, antique artifacts, coins and antique gems. Carl von Go ...
of
Sanssouci Park
Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, built under Frederick the Great in the mid-1700s. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the stru ...
,
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
, in what would become
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. Some years earlier, it was the resting place of several other members of the Imperial family, including Wilhelm's first wife,
Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein
, house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
, father = Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
, mother = Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Dolzig Palace ...
.
Dramatic representation
In 2017,
played a fictional Princess Hermine in ''
The Exception
''The Exception'' is a 2016 romantic drama film, romantic war film directed by David Leveaux (in his directorial debut) and written by Simon Burke, based on Alan Judd's 2003 novel ''The Kaiser's Last Kiss''. The film stars Jai Courtney, Lily Jam ...
'' alongside
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
as
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...
.
Ancestry
References
External links
*
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermine Reuss Of Greiz
1887 births
1947 deaths
House of Schönaich-Carolath
House of Hohenzollern
Princesses of Reuss
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
German monarchists
People from Greiz
People from Doorn