Heinrich XLV, Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line
Heinrich XLV, Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line
Heinrich XLV | |||||
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Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line | |||||
Born | (1895-05-13)13 May 1895 Ebersdorf, Principality of Reuss-Gera | ||||
Died | 1945 (disappeared) | ||||
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House | House of Reuss Younger Line House of Reuss | ||||
Father | Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line | ||||
Mother | Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenburg | ||||
Full name | |||||
German: Heinrich |
Heinrich XLV, Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line (German: Heinrich XLV Erbprinz Reuß jüngere Linie; 13 May 1895 – presumably 1945) was the head of the House of Reuss from 1928 to 1945, as well the last male member of the Reuss-Schleiz branch of the Younger Line.
Heinrich XLV | |||||
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Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line | |||||
Born | (1895-05-13)13 May 1895 Ebersdorf, Principality of Reuss-Gera | ||||
Died | 1945 (disappeared) | ||||
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House | House of Reuss Younger Line House of Reuss | ||||
Father | Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line | ||||
Mother | Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenburg | ||||
Full name | |||||
German: Heinrich |
Early life
Heinrich XLV was born at Ebersdorf, in the Principality of Reuss-Gera (present-day Thuringia), only surviving son of Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line (1858–1928), (son of Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line, and Duchess Agnes of Württemberg) and his wife, Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1864–1929), (daughter of Hermann, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen).
He was a great theatre lover and supporter and was a director, writer and consultant. In 1923, Heinrich XLV became head of the dramaturgy department at Reussian Theatre in Gera.
Prince Reuss
At the death of his father on 21 November 1928 he became head of the House of Reuss after the Younger and Elder Lines merged, when the Elder Line became extinct in the male line in 1927.
In 1935 he adopted one of his relatives, Prince Heinrich I (1910–1982) a member of the Köstritz branch of the Princely family of Reuss. The adoption took place for inheritance reasons, not for succession rights for the headship of the House of Reuss. In 1939 Heinrich I married Duchess Woizlawa Feodora of Mecklenburg, the niece of Heinrich XLV.
During the 1930s Heinrich XLV became a Nazi sympathizer and member of the Nazi Party.[2] In August 1945 he was arrested in Ebersdorf by the Soviet military and disappeared. Although he was most likely interned and killed in NKVD special camp Nr. 2 in Buchenwald, his name is not in any of the special camps' lists of the dead. On 5 January 1962 he was declared dead by a court in Büdingen.[3] His entire fortune was seized and confiscated in 1948 by the Soviet Military Administration, including the Ebersdorf Castle, Thallwitz Castle, Osterstein Castle in Gera.[4]
Heinrich XLV remained unmarried and childless and the succession of the House of Reuss passed to Prince Heinrich IV of the Reuss of Köstritz branch.
Titles and styles
13 May 1895 – 29 March 1913: His Serene Highness Prince Heinrich XLV Reuss of Schleiz
29 March 1913 – 1945: His Serene Highness The Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line
Ancestry
Notes and sources
Genealogics - Leo van de Pas - Hereditary Prince Heinrich XLV Reuss [9]
The Royal House of Stuart, London, 1969, 1971, 1976, Addington, A. C., Reference: II 224
Heinrich XLV, Hereditary Prince Reuss Younger Line House of Reuss Younger Line Cadet branch of the House of Reuss Born: 13 May 1895Died: 1945 | ||
Titles in pretence | ||
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Preceded by Heinrich XXVII | — TITULAR — Prince Reuss 1928 – 1945, officially 1962 Reason for succession failure: Principality abolished in 1918 | Succeeded by Heinrich IV Reuss of Köstritz |