Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (''His Serene Highness Prince Botho of

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a county and later principality between Hesse-Darmstadt and Westphalia. History The county with imperial immediacy was formed by the 1657 partition of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein and raised from a county t ...

'') (16 February 1927 in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...

– 27 January 2008 in

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

) was a German politician.

Early life and ancestry

Born into the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, one of the oldest houses of

German nobility The German nobility () and Royal family, royalty were status groups of the Estates of the realm, medieval society in Central Europe, which enjoyed certain Privilege (law), privileges relative to other people under the laws and customs in the Ger ...

, Botho was second son and youngest child of Prince Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hermann zu

(1873-1960) and his de-morganatized wife, Marie Rühm, Baroness von Freusburg (1892-1975).

Career

He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union and represented the party in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from 1965 to 1980. He first gained a direct mandate as representative of

Siegen-Wittgenstein Siegen-Wittgenstein is a Kreis (district) in the southeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Olpe (district), Olpe, Hochsauerlandkreis, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Lahn-Dill, Westerwaldkreis, and Altenkirche ...

and subsequently was elected from the land list. He served as president of the

German Red Cross The German Red Cross (GRC) ( ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. During the Nazi era, the German Red Cross was under the control of the Nazi Party and played a role in supporting the regime's policies, including the exclusion ...

between 1982 and 1994.

Private life

On 25 May in Bad Laasphe, he married Baroness Elisabeth Ilse Sonja Sylvia Karoline von Zedlitz und Leipe (1937-2020).https://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00109981&tree=LEO They had one son and two daughters: * Georg Christian Sigmund Winfired Rolf, Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (b. 1960), married Benedikta von Wolffersdorff-Mellin (b. 1961) and had issue * Friederike Maria Monika Jutta, Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (b. 1961), married Heinrich Frömbling (b. 1959) and has issue * Katharina Viktoria Ellinor, Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (b. 1965), married Joachim Friedrich (1961) and has issue

External links and references

Welt Online: Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein obituary
(German) 28 January 2008

Notes

1927 births 2008 deaths Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein German Red Cross personnel {{Germany-CDU-politician-stub