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Prince Albert of Prussia (1809–1872)

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For others of the same name, see Albert of Hohenzollern.
Prince Albert of Prussia
Portrait of Albert aged 51
Prince Albert, c. 1860s
Born(1809-10-04)4 October 1809
Königsberg
Died14 October 1872(1872-10-14) (aged 63)
Berlin
Burial
Charlottenburg Palace Park Mausoleum, Berlin
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1830; div. 1849)​
Rosalie von Rauch (morganatic)
​
​
(m. 1853)​
Issue
Names
Frederick Henry Albert
HouseHohenzollern
FatherFrederick William III of Prussia
MotherLouise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Prussian Royalty
House of Hohenzollern
Frederick William III
Children
Frederick William IV
William I
Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia
Princess Frederica
Prince Charles of Prussia
Alexandrine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg
Prince Ferdinand
Princess Louise
Prince Albert of Prussia

Prince Frederick Henry Albert of Prussia[1] (German: Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht; 4 October 1809 – 14 October 1872) was the fifth son and youngest child of King Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. His parents had fled to East Prussia after the occupation of Berlin by Napoleon, and Albert was born in Königsberg. Two of Albert's elder brothers were Frederick William IV, King of Prussia from 1840 till 1861, and William I, King of Prussia from 1861 to 1888 and German Emperor from 1871 until 1888.

Career

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Photograph of Prince Albert, c. 1870-72

In 1819 he joined the Prussian Army as a lieutenant and held the rank of a general of cavalry in 1852. He took part in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War as a cavalry corps commander at the battles of Gitschin and Königgrätz. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 he led a cavalry division at the battles of Wissembourg, Wörth and Sedan. He later joined the forces of his nephews Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia and Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the campaign against the Armée de la Loire.

After the war Albert was awarded the title of a Generaloberst. He died in Berlin, where he is buried at the Charlottenburg Palace Park Mausoleum.

He was the 74th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword.

Family

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In The Hague, on 14 September 1830 Albert married his first cousin Princess Marianne, daughter of King William I of the Netherlands. The marriage was dissolved on 28 March 1849. They had five children:

In Berlin on 13 June 1853, Albert married secondly Rosalie Wilhelmine Johanna von Rauch, daughter of Gustav von Rauch, chief of the Prussian General Staff 1812-1813 and Prussian Minister of War 1837–1841. She was created Countess of Hohenau on 28 May 1853. They had two sons:

Albrechtsberg Castle, Dresden.

As this second union was considered a morganatic marriage, the couple temporarily had to avoid the Prussian court. Albert acquired a vineyard in Loschwitz near Dresden, Saxony, where he had a residence, Albrechtsberg Castle, erected in 1854.

Aftermath

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In 1830 Albert had acquired a city palace in Berlin on Wilhelmstraße, then called Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. An adjacent street off Wilhelmstraße laid out in 1891 was named Prinz-Albrecht-Straße. After the Nazi Machtergreifung it became notorious as the seat of the Gestapo and the Reichsführer-SS. The Prinz-Albrecht-Palais itself from 1934 served as the headquarters of the SS Sicherheitsdienst under Reinhard Heydrich, from 1939 the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. In 1944 the building was heavily damaged by air raids and finally razed to the ground in 1955, leaving the foundations and cellars exposed to the open air. They remain so today, and are used as part of the Topography of Terror project.

Honours

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German orders and decorations[3]
Foreign orders and decorations[3]

Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ The Peerage – Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht Prinz von Preußen
  2. ^ Genealogical database by Herbert Stoyan[permanent dead link‍] [retrieved 18 June 2014].
  3. ^ a b Preußen (1868). Handbuch über den Königlich Preußischen Hof und Staat: für das Jahr .... 1868. Decker. p. 6.
  4. ^ Liste der Ritter des Königlich Preußischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler (1851), "Von Seiner Majestät dem Könige Friedrich Wilhelm III. ernannte Ritter" p. 18
  5. ^ Lehmann, Gustaf (1913). Die Ritter des Ordens pour le mérite 1812–1913 [The Knights of the Order of the Pour le Mérite] (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Sohn. p. 461.
  6. ^ Staat Hannover (1857). Hof- und Staatshandbuch für das Königreich Hannover: 1857. Berenberg. pp. 32, 64.
  7. ^ Kurfürstlich Hessisches Hof- und Staatshandbuch: 1856. Waisenhaus. 1856. p. 11.
  8. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Herzogtum Anhalt (1867) "Herzoglicher Haus-orden Albrecht des Bären" p. 17
  9. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1869), "Großherzogliche Orden" pp. 54, 65
  10. ^ Hesse (Germany) (1870). Hof- und Staats-handbuch des Grossherzogtums Hessen. p. 9.
  11. ^ Staat Oldenburg (1870). Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Großherzogtums Oldenburg: für ... 1869/70. Schulze. p. 29.
  12. ^ Sachsen (1866). Staatshandbuch für den Freistaat Sachsen: 1865/66. Heinrich. p. 4.
  13. ^ Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1869), "Großherzogliche Hausorden" p. 11 Archived 2020-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Staatshandbücher für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1854), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 29
  15. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg (1869), "Königliche Orden" p. 31
  16. ^ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Almanach royal officiel de Belgique. Librairie polytechnique De Decq. 1868. p. 52.
  18. ^ M. Wattel; B. Wattel (2009). Les Grand'Croix de la Légion d'honneur de 1805 à nos jours. Titulaires français et étrangers. Paris: Archives & Culture. p. 509. ISBN 978-2-35077-135-9.
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