Hermine Reuss of Greiz

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (German: Hermine, Prinzessin Reuß zu Greiz;[1][2] 17 December 1887 – 7 August 1947), widowed Princess of Schönaich-Carolath, was the second wife of Wilhelm II (1859–1941).[3] They were married in 1922, four years after he abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Princess Hermine
Born(1887-12-17)17 December 1887
Greiz, Principality of Reuss-Greiz, German Empire
Died7 August 1947(1947-08-07) (aged 59)
Paulinenhof Internment Camp, Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg,
Allied-occupied Germany
Burial15 August 1947
Antique Temple, Sanssouci Park, Potsdam
Spouse
Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath
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​
(m. 1907; died 1920)​

​
​
(m. 1922; died 1941)​
IssuePrince Hans Georg of Schönaich-Carolath
Prince Georg Wilhelm of Schönaich-Carolath
Princess Hermine Caroline of Schönaich-Carolath
Prince Ferdinand Johann of Schönaich-Carolath
Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath
HouseReuss Elder Line
FatherHeinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz
MotherPrincess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe
ReligionLutheranism

Early life
Hermine (left) and her sisters, 1903

Princess Hermine was born in Greiz as the fifth child and fourth daughter of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz (28 March 1846 – 19 April 1902), and Princess Ida Mathilde Adelheid of Schaumburg-Lippe (28 July 1852 – 28 September 1891), daughter of Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe.[3] Her father was the ruler of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, a state of the German Empire, in what is present-day Thuringia. Princess Hermine's disabled elder brother became Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz in 1902.

Upon her mother's early death, she was raised at the court of Princess Louise of Prussia, daughter of Emperor Wilhelm I, and her husband Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden. Like Hermine's father, Princess Louise was an implacable enemy of Prince Bismarck.

First marriage

Princess Hermine was married on 7 January 1907 in Greiz to Prince Johann George Ludwig Ferdinand August of Schönaich-Carolath (11 September 1873 – 7 April 1920).[3]

They were the parents of five children:

Marriage to ex-Emperor Wilhelm II
Hermine with Wilhelm II and her daughter Henriette in Doorn, 1931

In January 1922, a son of Princess Hermine sent birthday wishes to the exiled German Emperor Wilhelm II, who then invited the boy and his mother to Huis Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. The two had much in common, both being recently widowed: Hermine just over a year and a half before, and Wilhelm only nine months prior.

By early 1922, Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine. Despite grumblings from Wilhelm's monarchist supporters and the objections of his children, 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on 5 November 1922 in Doorn.[3] Wilhelm's physician, Alfred Haehner, suspected Hermine only married the former kaiser in the belief that she would become an empress and became increasingly bitter as it became apparent that this would not be the case.[4] Shortly before the couple's first wedding anniversary Haehner recorded how Hermine had told him how "inconsiderately [Wilhelm] behaved towards her" and how Wilhelm's face showed "a strong dislike" for his wife.[5] Hermine's first husband had also been older than she was, by fourteen years. Wilhelm and Hermine were 4th cousins once removed through mutual descent from Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and 5th cousins through common descent from King George II of Great Britain.

In 1927, Hermine wrote An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn, an account of her life up to that time. She cared for the property management of Huis Doorn and by establishing her own relief organization, she stayed in contact with monarchist and nationalist circles in the Weimar Republic. Hermine also shared her husband's antisemitism.[6] She remained a constant companion to the aging emperor until his death in 1941. They had no children.

Later life

Following the death of Wilhelm, Hermine returned to Germany to live on her first husband's estate in Saabor, Lower Silesia. During the Vistula–Oder Offensive of early 1945, she fled from the advancing Red Army to her sister's estate in Rossla, Thuringia. After the end of the Second World War, she was held under house arrest at Frankfurt on the Oder in the Soviet occupation zone, and later imprisoned in the Paulinenhof Internment Camp. On 7 August 1947, aged 59, she died suddenly of a heart attack in a small flat in Frankfurt, while under guard by the Red Army occupation forces.[3] She was buried in the Antique Temple of Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, in what would become East Germany. Some years earlier, it was the resting place of several other members of the Imperial family, including Wilhelm's first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

Dramatic representation

In 2014, Janet McTeer played a fictional Princess Hermine in The Exception alongside Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Ancestry

References
  1. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, pp. 248-249,302. ISBN 0-220-66222-3
  2. "Almanach de Gotha", Russie, (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1944), pp. 90, 97, (French).
  3. Lundy, Darryl. "Hermine Prinzessin Reuss zu Greiz". The Peerage. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  4. Röhl, John C G (2014). Wilhelm II Into the Abyss of War and Exile, 1900-1941 (Paperback ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 1211-3. ISBN 9781107544192.
  5. Röhl pp1211-3
  6. Urbach, Karina (2015). Go-Betweens for Hitler. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 232–233. ISBN 978-0191008672.


Hermine Reuss of Greiz
Born: 17 December 1887 Died: 7 August 1947
Titles in pretence
Vacant
Title last held by
Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein		 — TITULAR —
German Empress
Queen of Prussia
9 November 1922 – 4 June 1941
Reason for succession failure:
German monarchies abolished in 1918		 Succeeded by
Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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