Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

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The young Hereditary Grand Duke
The young Hereditary Grand Duke

Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (22 April 1910 - 31 July 2001) was the heir apparent to the throne of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and a member of the SS.

Contents

[edit] Early life

He was born in Schwerin the eldest child of the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Friedrich Franz IV and his wife Princess Alexandra of Hanover a daughter of Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Princess Thyra of Denmark. Following the defeat of the German Empire in the First World War his father abdicated on 14 November 1918 although he did not succeed to the throne as the Empire was replaced with the Weimar Republic.

[edit] Post monarchy

In May 1931 against the will of his father,[1] Friedrich Franz joined the SS and by 1936 he had been promoted to the rank of Hauptsturmführer.[2] He was posted to Denmark during the Second World War where he worked at the German embassy as a personal aide to Werner Best.[2] He spent the summer months of 1944 serving with the Waffen-SS tank corps.[2]

In May 1943 a family council was called by the Grand Ducal family and Friedrich Franz was passed over as heir in favour of his younger brother Duke Christian Ludwig who would instead inherit the family property.[1]

Friedrich Franz married Karin Elisabeth von Schaper (b. 1920) the daughter of Walter von Schaper and his wife Baroness Louise von Münchhausen on 11 June 1941 at Wiligrad. They divorced on 22 September 1967 but remarried a decade later in Glücksburg on 27 April 1977.[3] As he had no children and his brother only had two daughters with his death in Hamburg the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin became extinct in the male line.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Royals and the Reich: The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany, 72. 
  2. ^ a b c Royals and the Reich: The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany, 99. 
  3. ^ L'Allemagne Dynastique, Tome VI : Bade-Mecklembourg, 253. 

[edit] Sources

  • Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006). Royals and the Reich: The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195161335. 
  • Huberty, Michel; Alain Giraud, F. et B. Magdelaine. L'Allemagne Dynastique, Tome VI : Bade-Mecklembourg. ISBN 9782901138068. 
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