'' , house =

Glücksburg Glücksburg (; da, Lyksborg) is a small town northeast of Flensburg in the district Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and is the northernmost town in Germany. It is situated on the south side of the Flensborg Fjord, an inlet ...

, spouse =
, issue = Prince Alexander Ferdinand , image = Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.jpg , image_size = , caption = , birth_date = , birth_place = Grünholz Castle,

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

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 ...

, death_date = , death_place =

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

French Fourth Republic The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the Republicanism, republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of ...

, father = Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein , mother =

Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , title = Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein , house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , spouse = , issue = Victoria Adelaide, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Alexandra Victoria, Princess August Wilhelm of P ...

Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (21 April 1887 – 15 April 1957) was the second-eldest child and daughter of Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and his wife

Early life

Princess Alexandra Victoria was born on 21 April 1887 at Grünholz Castle in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

as the second-eldest child and daughter of Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and his wife

, a great-niece of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. Alexandra Victoria's father was the eldest son of

Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (23 October 1814 in Schleswig, Schleswig – 27 November 1885 in Luisenlund, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia, Germany) was the third Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. Friedri ...

and a nephew of

Christian IX of Denmark Christian IX (8 April 181829 January 1906) was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. A younger son of Frederick William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein- ...

. He had succeeded to the headship of the

House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...

and the title of

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

upon the death of his father on 27 November 1885.

Marriages and issue

Prince August Wilhelm

Alexandra Victoria's first husband was her first cousin

Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia Prince August Wilhelm Heinrich Günther Viktor of Prussia (29 January 1887 – 25 March 1949), nicknamed "Auwi", was the fourth son of German Emperor Wilhelm II by his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He was a vocal supporter ...

, the son of

Wilhelm II, German Emperor 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 ...

and his wife

Augusta Victoria , house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , father = Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein , mother = Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Dolzig Palace ...

, a sister of Alexandra Victoria's mother. They married on 22 October 1908 at the Royal Palace of Berlin. The marriage was arranged by the Emperor and Empress, but it was relatively happy. Alexandra was a great favorite of her mother-in-law, especially since the Empress was also her own aunt. A contemporary of the court, Princess

Catherine Radziwill Princess Catherine Radziwiłł ( pl, Katarzyna Radziwiłłowa; 30 March 1858 – 12 May 1941)Olive_Schreiner.html" ;"title="n response to Olive Schreiner">Schreiner’s book ''Trooper Peter Halkett of Mashonaland'' (1897) * ''My Recollectio ...

, commented that Alexandra "had always shown herself willing to listen to her mother-in-law. She is a nice girl - fair, fat, and a perfect type of the 'Deutsche Hausfrau' dear to the souls of German novel-writers". Another contemporary wrote that the marriage had been a love match, and that Alexandra was a "charmingly pretty, bright girl".Schwering, p. 92. The couple had planned to take up residence in

Schönhausen Palace Schönhausen Palace (german: Schloss Schönhausen) is a Baroque palace at Niederschönhausen, in the borough of Pankow, Berlin, Germany. It is surrounded by gardens through which the Panke river runs. The palace is maintained by the Prussian Pal ...

in Berlin, but changed their mind when August Wilhelm's father decided to leave his son the Villa Liegnitz in the

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 ...

. Their residence developed into a meeting place for artists and scholars. Alexandra Victoria and August Wilhelm had one son: *

Prince Alexander Ferdinand of Prussia Prince Alexander Ferdinand Albrecht Achilles Wilhelm Joseph Viktor Karl Feodor of Prussia (26 December 1912 – 12 June 1985) was the only son of Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein ...

(26 December 1912 – 12 June 1985) During the First World War, August Wilhelm was made district administrator (''Landrat'') of the district of Ruppin; his office and residence was now Schloss Rheinsberg. His personal adjutant

Hans Georg von Mackensen Hans Georg von Mackensen (26 January 1883 - 28 September 1947) was a German diplomat who served at different stages as "State Secretary" at the Foreign Ministry, German ambassador in Rome and a SS senior Group Leader (''"Gruppenführer"''). ...

, with whom he had been close friends since his youth, played an important role in his life. These "pronounced homophilic tendencies" contributed to the failure of his marriage to Princess Alexandra Victoria. They never undertook a formal divorce due to the opposition of August Wilhelm's father, Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the fall of the German monarchy in 1918, the couple divorced on 16 March 1920.

Arnold Rümann

Her second husband was Arnold Rümann, whom she married on 7 January 1922 at Grünholz Castle. In 1926, Alexandra moved for a time to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where she worked as a painter. She and Arnold were divorced in 1933.

Later life

After

World War II 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 ...

, Alexandra lived in a trailer near

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, where she earned a living as a portrait and landscape painter. She died on 14 April 1957 in a hotel in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandra Victoria Of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, Princess House of Hohenzollern Princesses of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg 1887 births 1957 deaths People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein Prussian princesses