Princess Irmingard of Bavaria (29 May 1923 – 23 October 2010) was the daughter of

Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Duke of Bavaria, Franconia and in Swabia, Count Palatine by (the) Rhine (''Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand''; English: ''Robert Maria Leopold Ferdinand''; 18 May 1869 – 2 August 1955), was the last hei ...

and his second wife,

Princess Antonia of Luxembourg Antoinette Roberte Sophie Wilhelmine (7 October 1899 – 31 July 1954), commonly referred to as Antonia, was the last Crown Princess of Bavaria before World War II. By birth, she was a member of the Luxembourgish House of Nassau-Weilburg as the c ...

. She was a half-sister of

Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria (Albrecht Luitpold Ferdinand Michael; 3 May 1905 – 8 July 1996) 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 ...

Life

Irmingard was born at her father's residence, Schloss

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...

. She spent her childhood between Berchtesgaden and her other residences, the Leuchtenberg Palais in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Schloss Leutstetten, and

Schloss Hohenschwangau Hohenschwangau Castle (german: Schloss Hohenschwangau) is a 19th-century palace in southern Germany. It was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. It is located in the Ge ...

. In 1936 she was sent to England to be educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

(later

Woldingham School Woldingham School is an independent school for girls, located in the former Marden Park of outside the village of Woldingham, Surrey, in South East England. It is a Roman Catholic school and a member of the global Network of Sacred Heart Schools ...

) where several of her cousins, princesses of Luxembourg, were also enrolled. In early 1940 Irmingard and her siblings were allowed to go to Italy and join their father who had left Germany to avoid conflict with the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

authorities. She spent the rest of the war mostly in Rome,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, and

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. In September 1944, Irmingard was arrested by the Nazis who had been unsuccessful in trying to find and arrest her father. She fell ill from typhus and was sent to a prison hospital in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

. When she recovered, she was sent to the concentration camp at

Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

, where she was reunited with other members of her family who had also been arrested. Later they were transferred to the concentration camps at Flossenbürg and Dachau, before being freed by the Third American Army on 30 April 1945. Irmingard and her sisters sought refuge in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, where their mother's sister

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

reigned. After a brief return to Germany, she went to the United States for a year, where her uncle Prince Adolf of

Schwarzenberg Schwarzenberg may refer to: People * House of Schwarzenberg, Franconian and Bohemian aristocratic family which was first mentioned in 1172 ** Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg (1771–1820), Field Marshal in Austrian service during the Napol ...

had a ranch in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Marriage and children

On 20 July 1950, Irmingard married her first cousin Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (22 June 1913 in

— 17 October 2008 in Leutstetten), son of

Prince Franz of Bavaria A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

and

Princess Isabella Antonie of Croÿ Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

. The

civil wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriag ...

took place at Leutstetten, and the religious ceremony followed a day later at

Schloss Nymphenburg The Nymphenburg Palace (german: Schloss Nymphenburg, Palace of the Nymphs) is a Baroque palace situated in Munich's western district Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, in Bavaria, southern Germany. Combined with the adjacent Nymphenburg Palace Park it cons ...

in Munich. The couple had three children, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren: * Prince Luitpold of Bavaria (born 14 April 1951 in Leutstetten). * Princess Maria of Bavaria (born and died 3 January 1953 in Leutstetten) * Princess Philippa of Bavaria (born and died 26 June 1954 in Leutstetten) After her father's death in 1955, Irmingard and her husband moved into Schloss Leutstetten, where she continued to live after her husband's death in 2008.

Ancestry

References

External links

Obituary of Princess Irmingard of Bavaria, The Daily Telegraph, 8 November, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irmingard of Bavaria, Princess 1923 births 2010 deaths People from Berchtesgaden Bavarian princesses House of Wittelsbach Nobility from Munich Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Flossenbürg concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors People educated at Woldingham School Burials at Andechs Abbey