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Princess Louise

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Birth Date:
03.12.1838
Death date:
23.04.1923
Person's maiden name:
Luise Marie Elisabeth
Extra names:
Princess Louise of Prussia
Categories:
Princess
Cemetery:
Grand Ducal Burial Vault

Princess Louise of Prussia (German: Luise Marie Elisabeth; 3 December 1838 – 23 April 1923) was the second child and only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm I and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

She was the younger sister of Frederick III of Germany ("Fritz") and aunt of Wilhelm II of Germany. Louise was seven years younger than Frederick and two years older than his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal.

Princess of Prussia

Louise was born on 3 December 1838 to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Her parents were an unhappy and estranged couple, and Louise had only one other sibling, Prince Frederick, who was seven years older. Upon her birth, Augusta declared that her duty in perpetuating the Hohenzollern dynasty was complete.

While Wilhelm showed little affection to his only son, he lavished attention on Louise, and often his unexpected visits to her schoolroom resulted in them playing together on the floor. Mother and daughter however were not close, with Augusta's presence filling Louise up with awe; one account states that when Augusta encountered her daughter, Louise "involuntarily drew herself up to her full height, and sat stiff and constrained as for her portrait, while she inwardly trembled lest her answers should prove incorrect".

Grand Duchess of Baden

Louise was betrothed to Frederick, Prince Regent of Baden in 1854, and they married 20 September 1856 at Neues Palais in Potsdam. Frederick had been regent because of his brother Louis's insanity, and was proclaimed Grand Duke of Baden when doctors declared that there was no chance of recovery. As the only daughter of the Prussian crown prince (and later emperor), their marriage caused Baden to gain a great deal of importance, and even more so once the German Empire was founded.

Within a few weeks of their marriage, the new grand duchess was already pregnant with their first child, Hereditary Grand Duke Frederick. Louise was a happy wife and mother, writing to a friend that "since we last met, my life has become so much more beautiful, more precious, to me, my happiness is so much richer and deeper than before".

Louise and Frederick disliked the stiffness of the Karlsruhe court, and gladly escaped to their castle on the island of Mainau. They were popular in Baden, and everyone spoke with affectionate pride of their grand duke and duchess in Constance, where the couple had a summer residence.

Later years

Louise was a great friend of Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, her sister-in-law's younger sister; i.e., Alice was the sister of Victoria, Louise's brother Frederick's wife, both sisters being daughters of Queen Victoria. The two often visited each other. In Queen Victoria's letters, she and Frederick were always referred to with pleasure or sympathy as good Fritz and Louise of Baden. Though friends as young girls, Louise and her sister-in-law Victoria, Princess Royal ("Vicky") always had a "none-too-friendly rivalry", particularly when comparing their children: while Vicky's eldest son Crown Prince Wilhelm was born with a deformed arm, Louise apparently could not resist bragging that her three children were healthier and bigger at the same age. Louise doted on her nephew however, and Vicky wrote to her mother that the grand duchess "spoilt him quite dreadfully". Often supporting him against his parents, her and Wilhelm's close relationship would carry on to his adulthood, and he would later write in his memoirs that Louise "possessed considerable political ability and a great gift for organisation, and she understood excellently how to put right men in the right place and how to employ their strength serviceably for the general benefit". He continued that his aunt "learned admirably to combine the Prussian element with the Baden character, and she developed into a model sovereign princess". Louise and Vicky's relations grew even more distant when the former wanted her son Crown Prince Frederick to marry Vicky's niece Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine; the princess instead married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, and Louise felt her family had been snubbed.

The Austro-Prussian War caused a degree of friction between Baden and Prussia, as the former, despite their close familial connections to Berlin, chose to support the Austrians. As the daughter of the Prussian king, Baden was not included in the list of states forced to pay excessive indemnities to Prussia. Her father's strongly anti-Catholic chancellor Otto von Bismarck disliked Baden however, as it was one of Germany's most important Catholic states; he saw its religion as threatening the stability of the new German Empire. Suspicious of the grand duchess' influence on her father, he did his best to block her request for clemency on behalf of Alsace Catholics to the emperor.

Philanthropic activities

Because of her status as Grand Duchess, Louise was very involved in her duchy's charitable organizations, particularly issues concerning women. She helped found a welfare charity for women called the Baden Frauenverein, which focused on providing hospitals and homes to children. With the support of the Women's Association, Louise founded the first Badenese housewifery school in Karlsruhe, carrying on Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder's goal of women receiving special domestic training.

Louise maintained a correspondence with Florence Nightingale, who believed the grand duchess' letters could have been written by "any administrator in the Crimean War". The grand duchess also had a lifelong friendship with Clara Barton, whom she met during the Franco-Prussian War. They organized military hospitals, and helped found sewing factories for women to aid the war effort; at Louise's suggestion, Barton was awarded the Iron Cross of Merit after the war by recently crowned Emperor Wilhelm.

Despite her old age, Louise was present to welcome back wounded German soldiers upon their return to Germany from French prison camps.

Widowhood

Within two years, four of Louise's closest family members died - her father, brother, younger son and mother. Vicky, now Dowager Empress Frederick, took sympathy on Louise and persuaded her mother to confer Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, First Class, on her.

Frederick died on 28 September 1907, and their eldest son succeeded as Frederick II. That same year, their only daughter Victoria succeeded as Queen consort of Sweden.

Louise, now Dowager Grand Duchess of Baden, lived to see her duchy become absorbed into the new state of Germany under the Revolution of 1918-19 that took place at the end of World War I. At the time of the revolution, her daughter, Queen Victoria of Sweden, was visiting her. After the abdication of the German emperor, riots spread in Karlsruhe on 11 November. The son of a courtier led a group of soldiers up to the front of the palace, followed by a great crowd of people, where a few shots were fired. Louise, as well as the rest of the family, left the palace the backway and left for the Zwingenberg palace in the Neckar valley. By permission of the new government, they were allowed to stay at the Langenstein Palace, which belonged to a Swedish count, Douglas. During these events, Louise was said to have kept her calm and never uttered a word of complaint. The government gave the order that the former Grand Ducal family was to be protected, and that Langenstein be excepted from housing the returning soldiers, because Louise's daughter, the Queen of Sweden, was in their company and Baden should not do anything to offend Sweden. In 1919, the family requested permission from the government to reside in Mainau, and was met with the answer that they were now private citizens and could do as they wished.

The new republican government gave her permission to live out the rest of her life in retirement at Baden-Baden, where she died on 24 April 1923. She was the last surviving non-morganatic grandchild of Frederick William III of Prussia.

Source: wikipedia.org

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        Relation nameRelation typeBirth DateDeath dateDescription
        1Marie Luise Augusta KatharineMarie Luise Augusta KatharineMother30.09.181107.01.1890
        2Victoria of BadenVictoria of BadenDaughter07.08.186204.04.1930
        3
        Paul Alexander Karl Constantin Frederick AugustUncle25.09.180510.04.1806
        4Karl Alexander August JohannKarl Alexander August JohannUncle24.06.181805.01.1901
        5Francis Paul Charles Louis Alexander Teck, DukeFrancis Paul Charles Louis Alexander Teck, DukeUncle28.08.183721.01.1900
        6William IIIWilliam IIIUncle19.02.181723.11.1890
        7Marie Luise AlexandrineMarie Luise AlexandrineAunt03.02.180818.01.1877
        8Charles FrederickCharles FrederickGrandfather02.02.178308.07.1853
        9Maria  PavlovnaMaria PavlovnaGrandmother04.02.178611.06.1859
        10Gustaf VI Adolf of SwedenGustaf VI Adolf of SwedenGrandson11.11.188215.09.1973
        11Louis Württemberg, DukeLouis Württemberg, DukeGreat grandfather30.08.175620.09.1817
        12Paul IPaul IGreat grandfather01.10.175423.03.1801
        13Henriette  Nassau-Weilburg, PrincessHenriette Nassau-Weilburg, PrincessGreat grandmother22.04.178002.01.1857
        14Maria FeodorovnaMaria FeodorovnaGreat grandmother14.10.175924.10.1828
        15Владимир АлександровичВладимир АлександровичCousin10.04.184704.02.1909
        16Duchess Alexandra  Petrovna of OldenburgDuchess Alexandra Petrovna of OldenburgCousin02.06.183825.04.1900
        17Великий князь Сергей МихайловичВеликий князь Сергей МихайловичCousin07.10.186918.07.1918
        18Prince Ioann  Konstantinovich of RussiaPrince Ioann Konstantinovich of RussiaCousin05.07.188618.07.1918
        19Gabriel RomanovGabriel RomanovCousin15.07.188728.02.1955
        20Алексей МихайловичАлексей МихайловичCousin28.12.187502.03.1895
        21Maria AlexandrovnaMaria AlexandrovnaCousin17.10.185324.10.1920
        22Alexander IIAlexander IICousin29.04.181813.03.1881
        23Константин КонстантиновичКонстантин КонстантиновичCousin10.08.185802.06.1915
        24Николай КонстантиновичНиколай КонстантиновичCousin14.02.185027.01.1918
        25Николай СтаршийНиколай СтаршийCousin27.07.183113.04.1891
        26Grand Duchess Maria  Nikolaevna of RussiaGrand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of RussiaCousin18.08.181921.02.1876
        27Olga  NikolaevnaOlga NikolaevnaCousin11.09.182230.10.1892
        28Olga  Constantinovna of RussiaOlga Constantinovna of RussiaCousin03.09.185118.06.1926
        29Дмитрий Константинович РомановДмитрий Константинович РомановCousin01.06.186030.01.1919
        30Сергей АлександровичСергей АлександровичCousin11.05.185717.02.1905
        31Принц Александр  ОльденбургскийПринц Александр ОльденбургскийCousin02.06.184406.09.1932
        32Paul  AlexandrovichPaul AlexandrovichCousin03.10.186030.01.1919
        33Duke Constantine  Petrovich of OldenburgDuke Constantine Petrovich of OldenburgCousin09.05.185018.03.1906
        34Сергей МихайловичСергей МихайловичCousin25.09.186918.07.1918
        35Grand Duke Nicholas  Nikolaevich of RussiaGrand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of RussiaCousin18.11.185605.01.1929
        36Igor  ConstantinovichIgor ConstantinovichCousin29.05.189418.07.1918
        37князь Георгий Максимилианович Романовскийкнязь Георгий Максимилианович РомановскийCousin29.02.185203.05.1912
        38Михаил Михайлович, Великий князьМихаил Михайлович, Великий князьCousin16.10.186126.04.1929
        39Михаил НиколаевичМихаил НиколаевичCousin25.10.183218.12.1909
        40Георгий Мекленбург-СтрелицкийГеоргий Мекленбург-СтрелицкийCousin25.05.185905.12.1909
        41Тереза ОльденбургскаяТереза ОльденбургскаяCousin30.03.185219.04.1883
        42Вера КонстантиновнаВера КонстантиновнаCousin24.04.190611.01.2001
        43Nicholas  MikhailovichNicholas MikhailovichCousin14.04.185930.01.1919
        44Анастасия МихайловнаАнастасия МихайловнаCousin28.07.186011.03.1922
        45Grand Duke Alexander MikhailovichGrand Duke Alexander MikhailovichCousin13.04.186626.02.1933
        46Mary of TeckMary of TeckCousin26.05.186724.03.1953
        47Великий Князь Георгий МихайловичВеликий Князь Георгий МихайловичCousin23.08.186330.01.1919
        48Евгений Лейхтенбергский РомановскийЕвгений Лейхтенбергский РомановскийCousin27.01.184718.08.1901
        49Принц Николай ПетровичПринц Николай ПетровичCousin09.05.184020.01.1886
        50Alexander CambridgeAlexander CambridgeCousin14.04.187416.01.1957
        51Georgy  KonstantinovichGeorgy KonstantinovichCousin23.04.190307.11.1938
        52Сергей  РомановСергей РомановCousin11.05.185717.02.1905
        53Oleg  KonstantinovichOleg KonstantinovichCousin15.11.189229.09.1914
        54Мориц Саксен-АльтенбургскийМориц Саксен-АльтенбургскийCousin24.10.182913.05.1907
        55Alexander IIIAlexander IIICousin10.03.184501.11.1894
        56Konstantin NikolayevichKonstantin NikolayevichCousin21.09.182725.01.1892
        57Великий князь Пётр НиколаевичВеликий князь Пётр НиколаевичCousin10.01.186417.06.1931

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