Wilhelm Karl Adalbert Erich Detloff Prinz von Preussen (30 January 1922, in
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 o ...
– 9 April 2007, in
Holzminden
Holzminden (; nds, Holtsminne) is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Holzminden. It is located on the river Weser, which at this point forms the border with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Histor ...
) was the third son of
Prince Oskar of Prussia
Prince Oskar Karl Gustav Adolf of Prussia (27 July 1888 – 27 January 1958) was the fifth son of German Emperor Wilhelm II and Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.
Biography Birth and family
Prinz Oskar of Prussia w ...
, and the last surviving grandson of
Wilhelm II
, house = Hohenzollern
, father = Frederick III, German Emperor
, mother = Victoria, Princess Royal
, religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United)
, signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
, the last German Emperor. He was the thirty-sixth Master of Knights (''Herrenmeister'') of the Protestant (and largely German)
Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg), also known as ''Der Johanniterorden''.
Biography
Wilhelm-Karl was the youngest of Prince Oskar of Prussia and
Countess Ina Marie von Bassewitz's four children.
[ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, p. 302. ] Having been admitted to the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the
Order of Saint John of the Hospital at Jerusalem (known unofficially as the ''Johanniterorden'', the Protestant successor of the mediaeval
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
) in 1944, he later succeeded his father as its head, serving as the thirty-sixth ''Herrenmeister'' ("Master of the Knights") of the Order from 1958 until 1999. Wilhelm-Karl worked tirelessly to keep the Order intact during the
Cold War and helped to reunite its membership after the fall of East Germany.
Amongst other orders and awards, Wilhelm-Karl received the Grand Merit Cross (with star) of the
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...
and the Grand Cross of the
Order pro merito Melitensi of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
.
Marriage and issue
In 1952, Wilhelm-Karl married Armgard Else Helene von
Veltheim#Veltheim family (17 February 1926 - 1 November 2019), daughter of Friedrich von Veltheim (1881-1955) and his wife, Ottonie von Alvensleben (1883-1960). The couple had two sons and a daughter:
[
* Donata-Viktoria Prinzessin von Preussen (born 24 December 1952).
* Wilhelm-Karl Prinz von Preussen (born 25 August 1955).
* Oskar Prinz von Preussen (born 6 May 1959); historian, succeeded his father as the Master of the Knights of the ''Johanniterorden'', he married Auguste Zimmermann von Siefart (born 16 May 1962), daughter of Ralf Emil Eberhard Jules Henning Zimmermann von Siefart (b. 1925) and Maria Ida Barbara Helene von Frankenberg und Proschlitz (b. 1930). The couple has two sons and a daughter:
** Oskar Prinz von Preussen (born 29 November 1993); engaged to Johanna Jenisch
** Wilhelmine Prinzessin von Preussen (born 7 July 1995)
** Albert Prinz von Preussen (born 13 July 1998)
]
Published works
* ''Auftrag des Johanniters. Ansprachen und Aufsätze'' ("Transactions of the Johanniter Knights: Talks and Treatises"); 1983.
* ''Johanniter und der 20. Juli 1944'' ("Johanniter Knights and the Plot of July 20, 1944", written with Lieutenant General
Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Bernd, Baron Freytag von Loringhoven); 1989 (second edition).
* ''Die Soldaten der Wehrmacht'' ("The Soldiers of the Wehrmacht", written with Karl-Günther von Hase and Hans Poeppel), 1998 (sixth edition, 2000). ()
Sources
This page is a translation of the article in the German language Wikipedia
Ancestry
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prinz von Preussen, Wilhelm Karl
Wilhelm-Karl
Wilhelm-Karl
Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
1922 births
2007 deaths