Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (german: Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Karl Ernst Alexander Heinrich von Preußen; 12 July 18809 March 1925) was a member of the

House of Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenbu ...

, great-grandson of King

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, w ...

Early life and education

Friedrich Wilhelm was born at Kamenz Palace in

Kamenz Kamenz () or Kamjenc ( Sorbian) is a town (''Große Kreisstadt'') in the district of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany. Until 2008 it was the administrative seat of Kamenz District. The town is known as the birthplace of the philosopher and poet Gott ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

, (now

Kamieniec Ząbkowicki Kamieniec Ząbkowicki (german: Kamenz N.S.) is a town in Ząbkowice Śląskie County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Kamieniec Ząbkowicki. The town is an ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) youngest child of Prince Albert of Prussia (1837–1906), (son of Prince Albert of Prussia and Princess Marianne of the Netherlands) and his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1854–1898), (daughter of

Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (German: Ernst I. Friedrich Paul Georg Nikolaus von Sachsen-Altenburg) (16 September 1826 in Hildburghausen – 7 February 1908 in Altenburg), was a duke of Saxe-Altenburg. He was the first son of Georg, Duke of Sa ...

and

Princess Agnes of Anhalt-Dessau , house = Ascania , father =Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt , mother = Princess Frederica of Prussia , birth_date = , birth_place =Dessau , death_date = , death_place = Hummelsh ...

). He was great-grandson of

King Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, wh ...

and

King William I of the Netherlands William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He was the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who went ...

. He was second cousin of

Wilhelm II, German Emperor Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Emp ...

. During his youth, he spent time in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, also at his grandmother's Reinhartshausen Castle in

Erbach Erbach may refer to: Places *Erbach im Odenwald, a town in Hesse, Germany *Erbach an der Donau, a town on the Danube River in Baden-Württemberg, Germany * Erbach, Rheingau, a district of Eltville, Hesse, Germany * Erbach, Rhineland-Palatinate, a m ...

and in Brunswick, where his father served as regent. A few years later he studied law at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

, where he received the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. His main interests were in literature and music.Mark Gaworski, Palace in Kamieniec Ząbkowickim. Architecture and owners, 2009, p. 106

Political career

After marriage, the Prince lived with his wife in Rudy. In 1912, was elected Landrat of Frankenstein District, where it remained until 1918, until the

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: *Abolitionism, abolition of slavery * Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment *Abolition of monarchy *Abolition of nuclear weapons *Abolit ...

of the

German monarchy The Monarchy of Germany (the German Monarchy) was the system of government in which a hereditary monarch was the sovereign of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. History The Monarch of Germany was created with the proclamation of the Presiden ...

and the establishment of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

. Previously, he participated actively in hostilities during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, for which he was promoted to the rank of

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

. Much of the time he traveled through Europe and the world, sometimes in important diplomatic missions, representing

Emperor Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

. Sensing the fall of the monarchy in Germany, at the end of the war, he took up for discussion and exchange views with university professors on the reconstruction of the existing system of government, proposing the introduction of a

constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

modeled on the form of government of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. In 1918, he was considered for the office of the

King of Finland This is a list of monarchs and heads of state of Finland; that is, the kings of Sweden with regents and viceroys of the Kalmar Union, the grand dukes of Finland, a title used by most Swedish monarchs, up to the two-year regency following the in ...

. However, his wife's Catholicism prevented this, and the Finns chose

Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse Frederick Charles Louis Constantine, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse (german: Friedrich Karl Ludwig Konstantin Prinz und Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel; fi, Fredrik Kaarle; 1 May 1868 – 28 May 1940), was the brother-in-law of the German Emp ...

(who was Lutheran as was his wife) instead. After the war and the establishment of the republic in Germany, Friedrich Wilhelm became involved with the

monarchists Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

, proposing the restoration of the German Empire. He was determined to take over the role of regent until the

heir to the throne An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

reached the age of majority. He died in 1925, aged 44 in Weisser Hirsch, a residential district in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Marriage and issue

Friedrich Wilhelm married 8 June 1910 at

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...

to Princess Agathe Charlotte Pauline Marie of

Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst was a county in northeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name Hohenlohe derives from the castle of Hohenloch near Uffenheim in Mittelfranken, which came into the possession of the descendants of Conrad o ...

(1888–1960), daughter of

Victor II, Duke of Ratibor , house = Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst , father =Victor I, Duke of Ratibor , mother = Princess Amélie of Fürstenberg , birth_date = , birth_place =Schloss Rauden, Kingdom of Prussia , death_date = , death_place = ...

, and his wife, Countess Maria Breunner-Enkevoirth. They had four daughters: *Princess Marie Therese of Prussia (2 May 1911– 3 January 2005), married in 1932 to Aloys Rudolph Hug, had issue. *Princess Luise Henriette of Prussia (21 July 1912 – 12 October 1973), married in 1936 to Wilhelm Schmalz, had issue. *Princess Marianne of Prussia (23 August 1913 – 1 March 1983), married in 1933 to Prince Wilhelm of

Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld This is a list of rulers of Hesse (german: Hessen) during the history of Hesse on west-central Germany. These rulers belonged to a dynasty collectively known as the House of Hesse and the House of Brabant,''Burke's Royal Families of the Wor ...

, had issue. *Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (9 February 1919 – 24 August 1961), married in 1948 to Heinz Mees, no issue.

Honours and awards

He received the following decorations:
Handbuch über den Königlich Preußischen Hof und Staat
' (1918), Genealogy p. 5

Ancestry

Notes and sources

*L'Allemagne dynastique, Huberty, Giraud, Magdelaine, Reference: vol V page 242 *The Royal House of Stuart, London, 1969, 1971, 1976, Addington, A. C., Reference: page 298. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prussia, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Of 1880 births 1925 deaths People from Ząbkowice Śląskie County People from the Province of Silesia Friedrich Wilhelm Friedrich Wilhelm Major generals of Prussia Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 2nd class German Army generals of World War I