Thursday, April 10, 2014

Prince Georg Friedrich to attend Prince Michael's funeral

Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, head of the Imperial House of Germany, will attend the funeral of his uncle (and godfather), Prince Michael of Prussia, who died on April 3 at the age of 74.   He will be accompanied by his wife, Princess Sophie.

The funeral for  Prince Michael, the second child of the late Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia and Grand Duchess Kira of Russia, will take place tomorrow, April 11, at the Lutheran chapel at Burg Hohenzollern.  It is not yet known where the prince's final resting place will be.  He will be cremated.  It is reported that the family desires Prince Michael's remains to be placed at Burg Hohenzollern, but this has not been confirmed by Prince Georg Friedrich's office in Berlin.

Prince Michael and his older brother, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, lost their dynastic rights in the 1960s, due to unapproved marriages.  The third son, Prince Louis Ferdinand, became the heir.  In 1975, he married Countess Donata of Castell-Rüdenhausen.  Two years later, he was killed in a tragic military accident, leaving behind his widow, pregnant with their second child, and a young, Prince Georg Friedrich.  (Donata gave birth to a daughter, Princess Cornelie-Cecile, in January 1978.)

Georg Friedrich's grandfather, Prince Louis Ferdinand, died in 1994.  He became the head of the family, although was subjected to discourse by his two elder uncles, both of whom tried to claim that their second marriages, to Ehrengard von Reden, and Birgitte von Dallwitz, were acceptable. (This was not the case.  The princes lost their rights at the time of their first marriages to German commoners.)  

There were challenges to Louis Ferdinand's will, but, eventually, at great financial cost, Prince Georg Friedrich prevailed.  None of his three paternal uncles, Princes Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince Michael and Prince Christian Sigismund) attended his wedding.

http://www.zak.de/artikel/203340

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