Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse

Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse (Georg Donatus Wilhelm Nikolaus Eduard Heinrich Karl, 8 November 1906 – 16 November 1937) was the first child of Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich. He was a nephew of Empress Alexandra and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.

Georg Donatus
Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
Head of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt
Tenure	9 October 1937 – 16 November 1937
Predecessor	Grand Duke Ernest Louis I
Successor	Prince Louis
Born	(1906-11-08)8 November 1906 Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire
Died	16 November 1937(1937-11-16) (aged 31)^[1] Ostend, Kingdom of Belgium
Burial	23 November 1937 Rosenhöhe Park Cemetery, Rosenhöhe Park, Darmstadt
Spouse	Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark ​ ​ (m. 1931)​
Issue	Prince Ludwig Prince Alexander Princess Johanna Unnamed son
Names German: Georg Donatus Wilhelm Nikolaus Eduard Heinrich Karl English: George Donatus William Nicholas Edward Henry Charles
House	Hesse-Darmstadt
Father	Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
Mother	Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

Marriage and children

On 2 February 1931, at Darmstadt, Georg, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, married his first cousin once removed, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg (and thus a sister of Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (later Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The couple had four children:

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Prince Ludwig Ernst Andreas of Hesse and by Rhine	25 October 1931	16 November 1937	Killed in air accident
Prince Alexander Georg Karl Heinrich of Hesse and by Rhine	14 April 1933	16 November 1937	Killed in air accident
Princess Johanna Marina Eleonore of Hesse and by Rhine	20 September 1936	14 June 1939	Died from meningitis.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]
Unnamed son	16 November 1937		Apparently born in or just before air accident.^[6]

On 1 May 1937 Georg Donatus and Princess Cecilie both joined the Nazi Party.^[7]

Death

In October 1937, Georg Donatus' father, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, died. A few weeks after the funeral, the new Grand Duke's younger brother, Prince Louis, was due to be married to the Hon. Margaret Geddes, daughter of Lord Geddes. On 16 November 1937, Georg Donatus, Cecilie, their two young sons, Georg's mother Grand Duchess Eleonore, the children's nurse, a family friend, a pilot and two crewmen, flew from Darmstadt bound for the United Kingdom, where Prince Louis was due to be married. The Junkers Ju-52 aeroplane hit a factory chimney near Ostend and crashed into flames, killing all those on board. Cecilie was heavily pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the crash, and the remains of the newborn baby were found in the wreckage, indicating that Cecilie had gone into labour during the flight; the Belgian inquiry into the crash suggested that the pilot was attempting to land in Ostend despite the poor weather conditions because of the birth.^[8]

Aftermath

Prince Louis' wedding had been scheduled for the 20th but, following discussions with his future father-in-law Lord Geddes, was brought forward to the day following the accident (17 November), as a small and quiet ceremony with the guests dressed in mourning.^[9]

Immediately afterwards, he set off with his new wife Margaret to Belgium to visit the crash site. The funeral and burial of Georg Donatus and his family took place at the Rosenhöhe, Darmstadt, Hesse, a few days later. Attending were Prince Philip,^[10] Prince Christoph of Hesse, Gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Prince Philipp of Hesse, Berthold, Margrave of Baden, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia and Lord Louis Mountbatten, among others. A photograph of the funeral procession, showing Prince Louis as chief mourner, shows crowds saluting the mourners with the Hitler salute. World War II began less than two years later.

The Hereditary Grand Duke and Duchess' fourteen-month-old daughter, Johanna, was the only one of the family who was not on board the aircraft. She was adopted by her uncle Prince Louis and aunt Princess Margaret in early 1938.^[11][2] Johanna died of meningitis in 1939.^[2][3][4][5]

With the death of the childless Prince Louis in 1968, the male line of the Hesse and by Rhine became extinct.

In popular culture

The crash figures in the plot of A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, in which Grand Duke Georg has in his possession the jewels of his aunt, the last Tsarina of Russia, which the KGB are looking for. There is no evidence in reality that this was the case.

He is depicted in the Netflix series The Crown portrayed by German actor August Wittgenstein.^[12]

Titles

• 8 November 1906 – 16 November 1937: His Royal Highness The Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine

Georg Donatus never acceded to the grand ducal throne as it had been abolished at the end of the First World War. Titles became surnames after that point, and it was rare for the head of a royal, grand ducal or ducal family to change his title upon accession as head of a house.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse

8. Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine 4. Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine 9. Princess Elisabeth of Prussia 2. Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine 10. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 5. Princess Alice of the United Kingdom 11. Victoria of the United Kingdom 1. Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine 12. Ferdinand, Prince of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich 6. Hermann, Prince of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich 13. Countess Caroline of Collalto and San Salvatore 3. Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich 14. Wilhelm, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode 7. Countess Agnes of Stolberg-Wernigerode 15. Countess Elisabeth of Stolberg-Roßla

Patrilineal descent

1. Gilbert I, Count of the Maasgau, d. 842
2. Gilbert II, Count of the Maasgau, 825–875
3. Reginar, Duke of Lorraine, 850–915
4. Reginar II, Count of Hainaut, 890–932
5. Reginar III, Count of Hainaut, 920–973
6. Lambert I, Count of Leuven, 950–1015
7. Lambert II, Count of Leuven, d. 1054
8. Henry II, Count of Leuven, 1020–1078
9. Godfrey I, Count of Leuven, 1060–1139
10. Godfrey II, Count of Leuven, 1187–1226
11. Godfrey III, Count of Leuven, 1140–1190
12. Henry I, Duke of Brabant, 1165–1235
13. Henry II, Duke of Brabant, 1207–1248
14. Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse, 1244–1308
15. Otto I, Landgrave of Hesse, 1272–1328
16. Louis the Junker of Hesse, 1305–1345
17. Hermann II, Landgrave of Hesse, 1341–1413
18. Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse, 1402–1458
19. Louis II, Landgrave of Hesse, 1438–1471
20. William II, Landgrave of Hesse, 1469–1509
21. Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, 1504–1567
22. George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1547–1596
23. Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1577–1626
24. George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1605–1661
25. Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1630–1678
26. Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1667–1739
27. Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1691–1768
28. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1719–1790
29. Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse, 1753–1830
30. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse, 1777–1848
31. Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine, 1809–1877
32. Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, 1837–1892
33. Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, 1868–1937
34. Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, 1906–1937

See also

• Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash
• Former German nobility in the Nazi Party

References

1. Worldroots.com 14 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
2. Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 302.
3. Vickers 2000, p. 283-284.
4. Mitterrand 1999, p. 328.
5. Beéche & Miller 2020, p. 198.
6. . Time 29 November 1937. "Searchers poking in the charred wreck of the plane stumbled on the remains of an infant, prematurely delivered when the plane crashed." Retrieved 20 December 2009
7. Jonathan Petropoulos, Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 382.
8. "Birth of Royal Infant seen as Cause of Crash". The Evening Independent. 23 November 1937. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
9. "A Twelfth Victim". Western Argus (Kalgoorlie, WA : 1916 - 1938). Kalgoorlie, WA: National Library of Australia. 23 November 1937. p. 19. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
10. Brandreth 2004, p. 69; Vickers 2000, p. 273
11. Vickers 2000, p. 273.
12. "The Crown (2016– ): Paterfamilia". IMDb. 8 December 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.

Works cited

• Beéche, Arturo E.; Miller, Ilana D. (2020). The Grand Ducal House of Hesse. Eurohistory. ISBN 978-1944207083.
• Brandreth, Gyles (2004). Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage. London: Century. ISBN 0-7126-6103-4.
• Mateos Sainz de Medrano, Ricardo (2004). "Cecilia de Grecia, gran duquesa heredera de Hesse y del Rhin". La Familia de la Reina Sofía: La Dinastía griega, la Casa de Hannover y los reales primos de Europa (in Spanish). Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros. p. 299-302. ISBN 978-84-9734-195-0.
• Mitterrand, Frédéric (1999). Mémoires d'exil (in French). Robert Laffont. p. 333. ISBN 978-2-221-09023-7.
• Vickers, Hugo (2000). Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece. Londres: Hamish Hamilton. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-241-13686-7.

Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse House of Hesse-Darmstadt Cadet branch of the House of Hesse Born: 8 November 1906 Died: 16 November 1937
German royalty
Preceded by Grand Duke Ernest Louis I	Head of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt 9 October 1937 – 16 November 1937	Succeeded by Prince Louis
Titles in pretence
Preceded by Grand Duke Ernest Louis I	— TITULAR — Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine 9 October 1937 – 16 November 1937 Reason for succession failure: Grand Dukedom abolished in 1918	Succeeded by Grand Duke Louis V