Bernhart Otto Peter, 6th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (born 15 November 1962) is a German businessman and the current head of the Princely House of

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a county and later principality between Hesse-Darmstadt and Westphalia. History The county with imperial immediacy was formed by the 1657 partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein and raised from a county t ...

Early life

Prince Bernhart was born in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approx ...

the son of Christian-Heinrich, Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1908-1983) and his second wife, Princess Dagmar of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1919–2003).

Personal life

Prince Bernhart was married at Castle Schwarzenau, Germany on 31 August 1996 to Countess Katharina von Podewils-Dürniz, the daughter of the German diplomat Count Max von Podewils-Dürniz (1919-1982) and his wife Baroness Elisabeth von Hirschberg (1927-1974). She has a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

and in 2003 was appointed

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

representative in Hamburg. The couple have one child, Wenzel Max, Hereditary Prince (''Erbprinz'') of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (b. 1997).

Career

Prince Bernhart is Chairman of the Board of the ''Fürst Wittgenstein`sche Waldbesitzergesellschaft'' Forestry company and also joint Managing Director of ''Verlag Dashoefer' publishers. He was the patron of the 300th Anniversary celebrations for the

Schwarzenau Brethren The Schwarzenau Brethren, the German Baptist Brethren, Dunkers, Dunkards, Tunkers, or sometimes simply called the German Baptists, are an Anabaptist group that dissented from Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed European state churches during t ...

, which were held on his estate in 2008.

Succession to the Hohenstein secundogeniture

Four

dynastic A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

branches of the princely House of

Sayn Sayn was a small German county of the Holy Roman Empire which, during the Middle Ages, existed within what is today Rheinland-Pfalz. There have been two Counties of Sayn. The first emerged in 1139 and became closely associated with the County ...

were extant at the beginning of the 20th century, each possessing its own

secundogeniture A secundogeniture (from la, secundus "following, second," and "born") was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants, creating a cadet branch. This was a special form of inheritance in which the second ...

.''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' Band XIX. "Sayn-Wittgenstein". C.A. Starke Verlag, 2011, pp.314-338. German. .

Almanach de Gotha The ''Almanach de Gotha'' (german: Gothaischer Hofkalender) is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published ...

''Sayn und Wittgenstein''.

Justus Perthes Johann Georg Justus Perthes (11 September 1749, Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – 2 May 1816, Gotha, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) was a German publisher and founder of the publishing house that bears his name. Life He was born in the Thuringian t ...

, 1944, pp.284-291. French. In order of seniority of legitimate descent from their progenitor, Ludwig I, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1532-1605), they were the: #Princes ('' Fürsten'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, descended from Count Georg (1565-1631) #Princes (''Fürsten'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, descended from Count Christian Ludwig (1725-1797) #Counts (''Grafen'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, descended from Count Georg Ernst (1735-1792) #Princes (''Fürsten'') zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, descended from Count Ludwig (1571-1634) Some of these lines had junior branches, dynastic and non-dynastic, the latter including families whose right to the princely title was recognized by the Russian, Prussian and Bavarian monarchies, whereas other morganatic branches used lesser titles in Germany. On the death of Ludwig, 3rd Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn in 1912, the eldest of his three sons, Hereditary Prince August (1868-1947), became 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein and head of the third branch of the House of Sayn. Being a childless bachelor, the elder of whose two younger brothers, Georg (1873-1960), had married

morganatically Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spouse ...

, while the younger, Wilhelm (1877-1958), was 49 and yet unmarried, August preserved the name and heritage of his branch of the House of Sayn by adopting Christian Heinrich ''Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg'' (1908-1953). He was the second son of the late head of the entire House of Sayn, Richard, 4th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1882-1925), whose eldest son,

Gustav Albrecht, 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: *Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...

(1907-1944) had inherited the senior line's fortune and position. In November 1960 Christian Heinrich, being the divorced father of two daughters by his dynastic marriage to Beatrix ''

Graf (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "coun ...

in'' von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1921-2006), married Dagmar ''Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein'' (1919-2002), elder daughter of his adopted father's younger brother, Georg, who died seven months before the wedding. As Georg's children by his morganatic wife, Marie Rühm, (created Baroness von Freusburg by the reigning Prince of Lippe in 1916) had been de-morganatized by declaration of their uncle August on 11 February 1947, her marriage to Christian Heinrich was deemed a dynastic match, ensuring that their son Bernhart would be born in compliance with the

house law House law or House laws (''Hausgesetze'') are rules that govern a royal family or dynasty in matters of eligibility for succession to a throne, membership in a dynasty, exercise of a regency, or entitlement to dynastic rank, titles and styles. P ...

s of his adoptive ancestors, the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohensteins, as well as being a grandson of the last dynastic male of that family, Prince Georg.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, Bernhart Bernhart zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein 1962 births Living people People from Marburg