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Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria

Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Duke of Bavaria, Franconia and in Swabia, Count Palatine by the Rhine (Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand; English: Robert Maria Leopold Ferdinand; 18 May 1869 – 2 August 1955), was the last heir apparent to the Bavarian throne. During the first half of World War I, he commanded the 6th Army on the Western Front. From August 1916, he commanded Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria, which occupied the sector of the front opposite the British Expeditionary Force.

Rupprecht
Crown Prince of Bavaria
Rupprecht in uniform prior to World War I
Head of the House of Wittelsbach
Tenure18 October 1921 – 2 August 1955
PredecessorLudwig III
SuccessorAlbrecht
Born(1869-05-18)18 May 1869
Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria
Died2 August 1955(1955-08-02) (aged 86)
Schloß Leutstetten, Starnberg, Free State of Bavaria, West Germany
Burial
Spouse
(m. 1900; died 1912)
(m. 1921; died 1954)
Issue
HouseWittelsbach
FatherLudwig III of Bavaria
MotherArchduchess Maria Theresia of Austria-Este

Childhood edit

 
Portrait of Rupprecht as a child by Franz von Lenbach c. 1874.

Rupprecht was born in Munich, the eldest of the thirteen children of Ludwig III, the last King of Bavaria, and of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, a niece of Duke Francis V of Modena. He was a member of the lineage of both Louis XIV of France and William the Conqueror. As a direct descendant of Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I of England, he was claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland in the Jacobite succession.[1] His early education from the age of seven was conducted by Freiherr Rolf Kreusser, an Anglo-Bavarian. In his youth, he spent much of his time at Schloss Leutstetten, Starnberg, and at the family's villa near Lindau, Lake Constance, where he was able to develop a keen interest in sports. His education was traditional and conservative, but he became the first member of the royal house of Bavaria to spend time at a public school, when he was educated at the Maximilian-Gymnasium in Munich, where he spent four years. Apart from his academic studies and his training in riding and dancing, at school he was also obliged to learn a trade, and he chose carpentry.[2]

Pre-war edit

Rupprecht's paternal grandfather, Luitpold, became de facto ruler of Bavaria when King Ludwig II and his successor Otto both were declared insane in 1886. Rupprecht's own position changed somewhat through these events as it became clear that he was likely to succeed to the Bavarian throne one day.

After graduating from high school, he entered the Bavarian Army's Infanterie-Leibregiment as a second lieutenant. He interrupted his military career to study at the universities of Munich and Berlin from 1889 to 1891. He rose to the rank of a colonel and became the commanding officer of the 2nd Infanterie Regiment Kronprinz but found enough opportunity to travel extensively to the Middle East, India, Japan and China. His early journeys were made with his adjutant, Otto von Stetten. Later he was accompanied by his first wife.

At the age of 31, Rupprecht married his kinswoman Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria, with whom he had five children before her early death in 1912 at the age of 34.

In 1900, he became the 1,128th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria.

In 1906, Rupprecht was made commander of the Bavarian I Army Corps, with the rank of lieutenant general of the infantry, promoted to full general in 1913.[3]

In 1912, Luitpold was succeeded in the position of Prince Regent by his son Ludwig. On 5 November 1913, Ludwig was made king by vote of the Bavarian Senate, becoming Ludwig III. This decision also made Rupprecht the Crown Prince of Bavaria.[4]

Rupprecht and Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia each commanded an army on the western front (the Sixth Army and the Fifth Army, respectively) and were directly involved in the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan.[5]

First World War edit

After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Rupprecht took command (2 August 1914) of the German Sixth Army in Lorraine. While much of the German army participated in the Schlieffen plan, the Crown Prince led his troops in the Battle of Lorraine (14 to 25 August 1914). His appointment to command the Sixth Army came as a result of his royal position, but the level of study he had performed before he took command was a factor behind his successful direction of the Sixth Army, and he proved a highly able commander.[6] Rupprecht's army gave way to the French attack in August 1914, in the Battle of Lorraine, and then launched a counteroffensive on 20 August.[6] Rupprecht failed to break through the French lines. In fact he was ordered by German General Staff to only occupy the French forces in that region. It was his idea to attack more aggressively.[7] He later commanded the 6th Army in Northern France (until August 1916), and remained on the Western Front during the stalemate that would last until the end of the war. Only a few days after the battle, his oldest son, Luitpold, died of polio in Munich (27 August 1914).

During the spring of 1915, Rupprecht sent an answer to General Moritz von Bissing, the Governor-General of Belgium, responding to Bissing's inquiry about Bavaria's opinion on the "Belgian question".[8] Rupprecht envisaged an economic and military association of Belgium with Germany by introducing the Netherlands (enlarged by the Flemish areas of Belgium and northern France) and Luxembourg (enlarged by Belgian Luxembourg) as new federal states of the German Empire.[8] To the Kingdom of Prussia, Rupprecht suggested other areas of northern France, Walloon Belgium with Liege and Namur, and the salient of the Netherlands round Maastricht.[8] The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine and the rest of Lorraine was to be partitioned between Bavaria and Prussia.[8] Rupprecht aimed to reduce Prussia's hegemonic role in the Reich by building a sort of an imperial triumvirate of power between Prussia, Bavaria and the Netherlands.[8] Likewise when Moltke the Younger ordered Bavarian troops to defend Prussia from the East, he declined. As a result, troops had to be withdrawn from the Belgian front - a more difficult undertaking.[7]

In November 1915 Hermann von Kuhl became Rupprecht's new Chief of Staff. This work relationship would last for the remainder of the war.[5]

Rupprecht achieved the rank of field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) in July 1916 and on 28 August that year assumed command of Army Group Rupprecht, consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th armies. Rupprecht has been considered by some[which?] one of the best royal commanders in the Imperial German Army of World War I, possibly even the only one to deserve his command. Rupprecht came to the conclusion - much earlier than most other German generals (towards the end of 1917) - that the war could not be won, given the ever-increasing material advantage of the Allies.[9] He also opposed the "scorched-earth" policy during withdrawals, but his royal position made a resignation on those grounds impossible for him, even though he threatened it. He eventually resigned from his command on 11 November 1918[3] - the day of the armistice.

He became engaged to the much younger Princess Antonia of Luxembourg in 1918, but Germany's capitulation delayed their marriage, and the engagement was postponed again.[4][10]

Links to military aviation edit

Max Immelmann, one of the most famous German First World War flying aces, referred in a letter written on 25 June 1915 to a visit by Rupprecht to an airfield to inspect the new Fokker Eindecker aircraft.

Primarily to see these fighting machines, yesterday the Crown Prince of Bavaria visited the field and inspected us and Abteilung 20. Director Fokker, the constructor of the combat aircraft, was presented to him.[11]

Interwar years edit

 
Prince Rupprecht and his second wife, Princess Antonia of Luxembourg

On 12 November 1918, in the wake of civil unrest in the last days of the war, Rupprecht's father, Ludwig III, promulgated the Anif declaration releasing his officials, officers and soldiers from their oaths. Although he did not formally abdicate (and some loyalists would continue to refer to Ludwig as King), the declaration was interpreted by the government of Bavaria as an abdication, making Bavaria a republic and ending 738 years of Wittelsbach rule; Rupprecht thus lost his chance to rule Bavaria. Rupprecht escaped to Tyrol in fear of reprisals from the brief communist regime in Bavaria under Kurt Eisner but returned in September 1919. While away from Bavaria, he succeeded his mother, Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, the last Queen of Bavaria, as the Jacobite heir. This occurred upon her death on 3 February 1919. As such, under his anglicized name, he would be King Robert I of England and King Robert IV of Scotland, although he never claimed these crowns and "strongly discouraged" anyone from claiming them on his behalf.[12]

The changed political situation however allowed him finally to marry Princess Antonia of Luxembourg on 7 April 1921. The nuncio to Bavaria, Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, officiated at the ceremony.

Shortly after the 1922 Washington Naval Conference, he made a statement regarding the possible ban of aerial bombing, poison gas, sea blockades and long range guns, blaming them for a majority of civilian casualties during the last war. He also advocated Germany's participation in future peace conferences, and he dismissed claims that Kaiser Wilhelm II was to blame for the First World War.[13]

While opposed to the Weimar Republic and never having renounced his rights to the throne, Rupprecht envisaged a constitutional monarchy for Bavaria. Upon his father's death in October 1921, Rupprecht declared his claim to the throne, since his father had never formally renounced his crown in the Anif declaration. While never crowned king, he did become the head of the House of Wittelsbach after his father's death. He formed the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichfond in 1923, which was an agreement with the state of Bavaria, leaving the most important of the Wittelsbach palaces, like Neuschwanstein and Linderhof, to the Bavarian people. Afterwards, Rupprecht became critical of wars like World War I. Rupprecht once said to the New York Times that the Washington Naval Conference would be able to make future warfare more humane. Rupprecht added that future conferences would entirely abolish chemical warfare.[13]

Rupprecht was never enticed to join the Nazis in Germany, despite Hitler's attempts to win him over through Ernst Röhm and promises of royal restoration.[14] The anti-Catholic stance of men like Erich Ludendorff might have been an influence.[15] He helped persuade Gustav von Kahr to not support Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch.[16] Hitler confided in private to a personal dislike of the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince in turn confessed to King George V at a lunch in London in the summer of 1934 that he considered Hitler to be insane.[17] With the worsening of the Great Depression in 1932, a plan was floated to give Rupprecht dictatorial powers in Bavaria under the title of Staatskommissar. The plan attracted support from a wide coalition of parties, including the SPD and the post-war Bavarian Minister-President (First Minister) Wilhelm Hoegner but the legal appointment of Hitler as Reichskanzler in 1933 by Hindenburg and the hesitant Bavarian government under Heinrich Held ended all hopes for the idea.

Rupprecht continued to believe that restoration of the monarchy was possible, an opinion he voiced to the British ambassador Eric Phipps in 1935.

Second World War edit

Rupprecht was forced into exile in Italy in December 1939 (the last straw being the confiscation of Schloß Leutstetten by the Nazis) where he stayed as a guest of King Victor Emmanuel, residing mostly in Florence. He and his family were barred from returning to Germany. He continued to harbor the idea of the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy, in a possible union with Austria as an independent Southern Germany.[2] In a memorandum in May 1943, he voiced his opinion that Germany would be completely defeated in the war and hoped to spare the German people from the worst when the Nazi regime finally fell. He even mentioned his ambition for the German crown, which had been held by the House of Wittelsbach in the past.[17]

In October 1944, when Germany occupied Hungary, Rupprecht's wife and children were captured, while he, still in Italy, evaded arrest. They were first imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg, Brandenburg. In April 1945, they were moved to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were liberated by the United States Army. Antonia never recovered completely from the captivity, and died in 1954 in Switzerland, having vowed never to return to Germany after her ordeal. She was buried in Rome but her heart was, complying with Wittelsbach tradition, enshrined in the Gnadenkapelle (Chapel of the Miraculous Image) at Altötting.

Post-war edit

 
Rupprecht with six of his children.

Rupprecht continued to advocate the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy upon his return but found no support from the US occupation authorities who, however, treated him courteously. General Dwight D. Eisenhower provided a special plane to fly him back to Munich in September 1945 and he returned to Schloss Leutstetten.

Of the 170 members of the Bavarian parliament, 70 declared themselves to be monarchists in September 1954, a clear sign of support for the Crown Prince.[18]

Death edit

Upon his death in 1955 at Schloss Leutstetten at the age of 86, he was treated like a deceased monarch, receiving a state funeral. His life had spanned the independent Kingdom of Bavaria, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, Allied-occupied Germany, and the establishment of West Germany and East Germany. He is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich near his grandfather Prince Luitpold and great-great-grandfather King Maximilian I, between his first wife Duchess Maria Gabrielle and his eldest son Prince Luitpold.

Marriages and children edit

 
Crown Prince Rupprecht (left) with his son Albrecht and his grandson Franz in 1948

Rupprecht married twice and had children with both of his wives. His first wife was Duchess Marie Gabriele in Bavaria (9 October 1878 – 24 October 1912), daughter of Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria, married on 10 July 1900 in Munich. They had five children:

  • Luitpold Maximilian Ludwig Karl, Hereditary Prince of Bavaria (8 May 1901 – 27 August 1914); died of polio.
  • Princess Irmingard Maria Therese José Cäcilia Adelheid Michaela Antonia Adelgunde of Bavaria (21 September 1902 – 21 April 1903); died of diphtheria.
  • Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria (3 May 1905 – 8 July 1996).
  • Stillborn daughter (6 December 1906).
  • Prince Rudolf Friedrich Rupprecht of Bavaria (30 May 1909 – 26 June 1912); died of diabetes.

His second wife was Princess Antonia of Luxembourg (7 October 1899 – 31 July 1954), daughter of William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, married on 7 April 1921 in Lenggries. They had six children.

  • Prince Heinrich Franz Wilhelm of Bavaria (28 March 1922 – 14 February 1958). Married non-dynastically Anne Marie de Lustrac (1927–1999).[19] No issue. Heinrich was killed in a car accident in Argentina.[19] His wife Anne was killed in a similar accident in Milan forty years later.[19]
  • Princess Irmingard Marie Josefa of Bavaria (29 May 1923 – 23 October 2010). Married her first cousin Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (1913–2008) and had issue.
  • Princess Editha Marie Gabriele Anna of Bavaria (16 September 1924 – 4 May 2013). Married first Tito Tommaso Maria Brunetti (1905–1954) and second Prof. Gustav Christian Schimert (1910–1990). Had issue by both.[20]
  • Princess Hilda Hildegard Marie Gabriele of Bavaria (24 March 1926 – 5 May 2002). Married Juan Bradstock Edgar Lockett de Loayza (1912–1987) and had issue.
  • Princess Gabriele Adelgunde Marie Theresia Antonia of Bavaria (10 May 1927 – 19 April 2019). Married Carl, 14th Duke of Croÿ (1914–2011), and had issue.
  • Princess Sophie Marie Therese of Bavaria (b. 20 June 1935). Married Prince Jean-Engelbert, 12th Duke of Arenberg (1921–2011), and has issue.

Titles, styles and honours edit

 
Royal monogram

Titles and styles edit

His full style was "His Royal Highness Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Duke of Bavaria, of Franconia and in Swabia, Count Palatine by the Rhine".[6]

Honours edit

German honours[15]
Foreign honours[15]

Military ranks edit

Ancestry edit

References edit

  1. ^ Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I (Kindle Location 3936). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
  2. ^ a b Manfred Berger (2003). "Rupprecht, Maria Luitpold Ferdinand, Kronprinz von Bayern, Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, Herzog von Bayern, Franken und in Schwaben usw.". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 22. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1173–1186. ISBN 3-88309-133-2.
  3. ^ a b Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, 1869-1955, J. Rickard (6 November 2007)
  4. ^ a b Wittelsbacher (in German), Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
  5. ^ a b Tucker, Spencer; Roberts, Priscilla Mary (2005). World War I: Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-420-2.
  6. ^ a b c Turner, Cambrai 1917: The birth of armoured warfare, 15
  7. ^ a b Indy Neidell, The Schlieffen Plan - And Why It Failed I THE GREAT WAR Special feat. AlternateHistoryHub, [1]
  8. ^ a b c d e Fischer, Fritz. Germany's War Aims in the First World War, p. 181
  9. ^ "The National Archives - Exhibitions & Learning online - First World War - Glossary". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  10. ^ The Kaiser's Warlords: German Commanders of World War I - Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern google book review, pp. 27–29
  11. ^ van Wyngarden, G (2006). Early German Aces of World War I, Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84176-997-5
  12. ^ . www.royalstuartsociety.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  13. ^ a b The New York Times, 4 January 1922
  14. ^ . Archived from the original on 9 August 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
  15. ^ a b c the Prussian Machine. Archived from the original on 23 October 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  16. ^ Irvine, Wendell C. (November 1931). "Adolf Hitler / The Man and His Ideas". The Improvement Era. p. 13. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  17. ^ a b Royals and the Reich: The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany google book review, p. 72, author: Jonathan Petropoulos, accessdate: 29 April 2008
  18. ^ "Die Monarchie als Staatsform (in German)". Historisches Lexikon Bayerns. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
  19. ^ a b c de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. Le Petit Gotha. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery, Paris 2002, p. 34 (French) ISBN 2-9507974-3-1
  20. ^ Rhodes, Michael (9 May 2013). "Peerage News: Princess Editha Marie Gabrielle Anna of Bavaria 1924-2013".
  21. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern (1908), "Königliche Orden", p. 7
  22. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch ... Bayern (1908), "Königliche Orden", p. 11
  23. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1896), "Großherzogliche Orden", p. 63
  24. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch ... Baden (1896), "Großherzogliche Orden", p. 77
  25. ^ "Ludewigs-orden", Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1914, p. 5 – via hathitrust.org
  26. ^ "Schwarzer Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (supp.) (in German), vol. 1, Berlin, 1886, p. 5 – via hathitrust.org{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. ^ Justus Perthes, Almanach de Gotha (1914) p. 14
  28. ^ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ Boettger, T. F. "Chevaliers de la Toisón d'Or - Knights of the Golden Fleece". La Confrérie Amicale. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  30. ^ a b Albert I;Museum Dynasticum N° .21: 2009/ n° 2; pag.30.
  31. ^ 刑部芳則 (2017). 明治時代の勲章外交儀礼 (PDF) (in Japanese). 明治聖徳記念学会紀要. p. 150.
  32. ^ "Real y distinguida orden de Carlos III", Guóa Oficial de España (in Spanish), 1914, p. 200, retrieved 4 March 2019
  33. ^ Sveriges statskalender (in Swedish). 1905. p. 441. Retrieved 6 January 2018 – via runeberg.org.

Works edit

  • Mein Kriegstagebuch. München: Deutscher National Verlag, 1929.
  • Reiseerinnerungen aus Indien. München: Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, 1922.
  • Reiseerinnerungen aus Ostasien. München: Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, 1923.
  • Reiseerinnerungen aus dem Südosten Europas und dem Orient. München: Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, 1923.

Further reading edit

  • Berger, Manfred (2003). "Rupprecht, Maria Luitpold Ferdinand, Kronprinz von Bayern, Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, Herzog von Bayern, Franken und in Schwaben usw.". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 22. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1173–1186. ISBN 3-88309-133-2.
  • "Crown Prince Rupprecht". Firstworldwar.com.
  • Garnett, Robert S., Jr. Lion, Eagle, and Swastika: Bavarian Monarchism in Weimar Germany, 1918–1933.
  • Rickard, J. "Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, 1869–1955". Historyofwar.org.
  • Sendtner, Kurt. Rupprecht von Wittelsbach, Kronprinz von Bayern. München: Richard Pflaum, 1954.
  • Weiß, Dieter J. Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern: Eine politische Biografie. Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 2007.

External links edit

  Media related to Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria at Wikimedia Commons

  • Boff, Jonathan: Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
  • Crown Prince Rupprecht, 1914 (Page links to Windows Media File, 17 seconds, 479KB)
  • Newspaper clippings about Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria
Born: 18 May 1869 Died: 2 August 1955
Titles in pretence
Preceded by — TITULAR —
King of Bavaria
18 October 1921 – 2 August 1955
Reason for succession failure:
Kingdom abolished in 1918
Succeeded by
Preceded by — TITULAR —
King of England, Scotland and Ireland
3 February 1919 – 2 August 1955
Military offices
Preceded by
Formed from IV Army Inspectorate
(IV. Armee-Inspektion)
Commander, 6th Army
2 August 1914 – 28 August 1916
Succeeded by
Preceded by Commander, Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria
28 August 1916 – 11 November 1918
Dissolved

rupprecht, crown, prince, bavaria, duke, bavaria, franconia, swabia, count, palatine, rhine, rupprecht, maria, luitpold, ferdinand, english, robert, maria, leopold, ferdinand, 1869, august, 1955, last, heir, apparent, bavarian, throne, during, first, half, wor. Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria Duke of Bavaria Franconia and in Swabia Count Palatine by the Rhine Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand English Robert Maria Leopold Ferdinand 18 May 1869 2 August 1955 was the last heir apparent to the Bavarian throne During the first half of World War I he commanded the 6th Army on the Western Front From August 1916 he commanded Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria which occupied the sector of the front opposite the British Expeditionary Force RupprechtCrown Prince of BavariaRupprecht in uniform prior to World War IHead of the House of WittelsbachTenure18 October 1921 2 August 1955PredecessorLudwig IIISuccessorAlbrechtBorn 1869 05 18 18 May 1869Munich Kingdom of BavariaDied2 August 1955 1955 08 02 aged 86 Schloss Leutstetten Starnberg Free State of Bavaria West GermanyBurialTheatine Church MunichSpouseDuchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria m 1900 died 1912 wbr Princess Antonia of Luxembourg m 1921 died 1954 wbr IssueLuitpold Hereditary Prince of Bavaria Princess Irmingard Albrecht Duke of Bavaria Prince Rudolf Prince Heinrich Princess Irmingard Princess Editha Princess Hilda Princess Gabrielle Duchess of Croy Princess Sophie Duchess of ArenbergHouseWittelsbachFatherLudwig III of BavariaMotherArchduchess Maria Theresia of Austria Este Contents 1 Childhood 2 Pre war 3 First World War 3 1 Links to military aviation 4 Interwar years 5 Second World War 6 Post war 7 Death 8 Marriages and children 9 Titles styles and honours 9 1 Titles and styles 9 2 Honours 10 Military ranks 11 Ancestry 12 References 13 Works 14 Further reading 15 External linksChildhood edit nbsp Portrait of Rupprecht as a child by Franz von Lenbach c 1874 Rupprecht was born in Munich the eldest of the thirteen children of Ludwig III the last King of Bavaria and of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria Este a niece of Duke Francis V of Modena He was a member of the lineage of both Louis XIV of France and William the Conqueror As a direct descendant of Henrietta of England daughter of Charles I of England he was claimant to the thrones of England Scotland and Ireland in the Jacobite succession 1 His early education from the age of seven was conducted by Freiherr Rolf Kreusser an Anglo Bavarian In his youth he spent much of his time at Schloss Leutstetten Starnberg and at the family s villa near Lindau Lake Constance where he was able to develop a keen interest in sports His education was traditional and conservative but he became the first member of the royal house of Bavaria to spend time at a public school when he was educated at the Maximilian Gymnasium in Munich where he spent four years Apart from his academic studies and his training in riding and dancing at school he was also obliged to learn a trade and he chose carpentry 2 Pre war editRupprecht s paternal grandfather Luitpold became de facto ruler of Bavaria when King Ludwig II and his successor Otto both were declared insane in 1886 Rupprecht s own position changed somewhat through these events as it became clear that he was likely to succeed to the Bavarian throne one day After graduating from high school he entered the Bavarian Army s Infanterie Leibregiment as a second lieutenant He interrupted his military career to study at the universities of Munich and Berlin from 1889 to 1891 He rose to the rank of a colonel and became the commanding officer of the 2nd Infanterie Regiment Kronprinz but found enough opportunity to travel extensively to the Middle East India Japan and China His early journeys were made with his adjutant Otto von Stetten Later he was accompanied by his first wife At the age of 31 Rupprecht married his kinswoman Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria with whom he had five children before her early death in 1912 at the age of 34 In 1900 he became the 1 128th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria In 1906 Rupprecht was made commander of the Bavarian I Army Corps with the rank of lieutenant general of the infantry promoted to full general in 1913 3 In 1912 Luitpold was succeeded in the position of Prince Regent by his son Ludwig On 5 November 1913 Ludwig was made king by vote of the Bavarian Senate becoming Ludwig III This decision also made Rupprecht the Crown Prince of Bavaria 4 Rupprecht and Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia each commanded an army on the western front the Sixth Army and the Fifth Army respectively and were directly involved in the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan 5 First World War editAfter the outbreak of World War I in July 1914 Rupprecht took command 2 August 1914 of the German Sixth Army in Lorraine While much of the German army participated in the Schlieffen plan the Crown Prince led his troops in the Battle of Lorraine 14 to 25 August 1914 His appointment to command the Sixth Army came as a result of his royal position but the level of study he had performed before he took command was a factor behind his successful direction of the Sixth Army and he proved a highly able commander 6 Rupprecht s army gave way to the French attack in August 1914 in the Battle of Lorraine and then launched a counteroffensive on 20 August 6 Rupprecht failed to break through the French lines In fact he was ordered by German General Staff to only occupy the French forces in that region It was his idea to attack more aggressively 7 He later commanded the 6th Army in Northern France until August 1916 and remained on the Western Front during the stalemate that would last until the end of the war Only a few days after the battle his oldest son Luitpold died of polio in Munich 27 August 1914 During the spring of 1915 Rupprecht sent an answer to General Moritz von Bissing the Governor General of Belgium responding to Bissing s inquiry about Bavaria s opinion on the Belgian question 8 Rupprecht envisaged an economic and military association of Belgium with Germany by introducing the Netherlands enlarged by the Flemish areas of Belgium and northern France and Luxembourg enlarged by Belgian Luxembourg as new federal states of the German Empire 8 To the Kingdom of Prussia Rupprecht suggested other areas of northern France Walloon Belgium with Liege and Namur and the salient of the Netherlands round Maastricht 8 The Imperial Territory of Alsace Lorraine and the rest of Lorraine was to be partitioned between Bavaria and Prussia 8 Rupprecht aimed to reduce Prussia s hegemonic role in the Reich by building a sort of an imperial triumvirate of power between Prussia Bavaria and the Netherlands 8 Likewise when Moltke the Younger ordered Bavarian troops to defend Prussia from the East he declined As a result troops had to be withdrawn from the Belgian front a more difficult undertaking 7 In November 1915 Hermann von Kuhl became Rupprecht s new Chief of Staff This work relationship would last for the remainder of the war 5 Rupprecht achieved the rank of field marshal Generalfeldmarschall in July 1916 and on 28 August that year assumed command of Army Group Rupprecht consisting of the 1st 2nd 6th and 7th armies Rupprecht has been considered by some which one of the best royal commanders in the Imperial German Army of World War I possibly even the only one to deserve his command Rupprecht came to the conclusion much earlier than most other German generals towards the end of 1917 that the war could not be won given the ever increasing material advantage of the Allies 9 He also opposed the scorched earth policy during withdrawals but his royal position made a resignation on those grounds impossible for him even though he threatened it He eventually resigned from his command on 11 November 1918 3 the day of the armistice He became engaged to the much younger Princess Antonia of Luxembourg in 1918 but Germany s capitulation delayed their marriage and the engagement was postponed again 4 10 Links to military aviation edit Max Immelmann one of the most famous German First World War flying aces referred in a letter written on 25 June 1915 to a visit by Rupprecht to an airfield to inspect the new Fokker Eindecker aircraft Primarily to see these fighting machines yesterday the Crown Prince of Bavaria visited the field and inspected us and Abteilung 20 Director Fokker the constructor of the combat aircraft was presented to him 11 Interwar years edit nbsp Prince Rupprecht and his second wife Princess Antonia of Luxembourg On 12 November 1918 in the wake of civil unrest in the last days of the war Rupprecht s father Ludwig III promulgated the Anif declaration releasing his officials officers and soldiers from their oaths Although he did not formally abdicate and some loyalists would continue to refer to Ludwig as King the declaration was interpreted by the government of Bavaria as an abdication making Bavaria a republic and ending 738 years of Wittelsbach rule Rupprecht thus lost his chance to rule Bavaria Rupprecht escaped to Tyrol in fear of reprisals from the brief communist regime in Bavaria under Kurt Eisner but returned in September 1919 While away from Bavaria he succeeded his mother Maria Theresa of Austria Este the last Queen of Bavaria as the Jacobite heir This occurred upon her death on 3 February 1919 As such under his anglicized name he would be King Robert I of England and King Robert IV of Scotland although he never claimed these crowns and strongly discouraged anyone from claiming them on his behalf 12 The changed political situation however allowed him finally to marry Princess Antonia of Luxembourg on 7 April 1921 The nuncio to Bavaria Eugenio Pacelli later Pope Pius XII officiated at the ceremony Shortly after the 1922 Washington Naval Conference he made a statement regarding the possible ban of aerial bombing poison gas sea blockades and long range guns blaming them for a majority of civilian casualties during the last war He also advocated Germany s participation in future peace conferences and he dismissed claims that Kaiser Wilhelm II was to blame for the First World War 13 While opposed to the Weimar Republic and never having renounced his rights to the throne Rupprecht envisaged a constitutional monarchy for Bavaria Upon his father s death in October 1921 Rupprecht declared his claim to the throne since his father had never formally renounced his crown in the Anif declaration While never crowned king he did become the head of the House of Wittelsbach after his father s death He formed the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichfond in 1923 which was an agreement with the state of Bavaria leaving the most important of the Wittelsbach palaces like Neuschwanstein and Linderhof to the Bavarian people Afterwards Rupprecht became critical of wars like World War I Rupprecht once said to the New York Times that the Washington Naval Conference would be able to make future warfare more humane Rupprecht added that future conferences would entirely abolish chemical warfare 13 Rupprecht was never enticed to join the Nazis in Germany despite Hitler s attempts to win him over through Ernst Rohm and promises of royal restoration 14 The anti Catholic stance of men like Erich Ludendorff might have been an influence 15 He helped persuade Gustav von Kahr to not support Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch 16 Hitler confided in private to a personal dislike of the Crown Prince The Crown Prince in turn confessed to King George V at a lunch in London in the summer of 1934 that he considered Hitler to be insane 17 With the worsening of the Great Depression in 1932 a plan was floated to give Rupprecht dictatorial powers in Bavaria under the title of Staatskommissar The plan attracted support from a wide coalition of parties including the SPD and the post war Bavarian Minister President First Minister Wilhelm Hoegner but the legal appointment of Hitler as Reichskanzler in 1933 by Hindenburg and the hesitant Bavarian government under Heinrich Held ended all hopes for the idea Rupprecht continued to believe that restoration of the monarchy was possible an opinion he voiced to the British ambassador Eric Phipps in 1935 Second World War editRupprecht was forced into exile in Italy in December 1939 the last straw being the confiscation of Schloss Leutstetten by the Nazis where he stayed as a guest of King Victor Emmanuel residing mostly in Florence He and his family were barred from returning to Germany He continued to harbor the idea of the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy in a possible union with Austria as an independent Southern Germany 2 In a memorandum in May 1943 he voiced his opinion that Germany would be completely defeated in the war and hoped to spare the German people from the worst when the Nazi regime finally fell He even mentioned his ambition for the German crown which had been held by the House of Wittelsbach in the past 17 In October 1944 when Germany occupied Hungary Rupprecht s wife and children were captured while he still in Italy evaded arrest They were first imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg Brandenburg In April 1945 they were moved to the Dachau concentration camp where they were liberated by the United States Army Antonia never recovered completely from the captivity and died in 1954 in Switzerland having vowed never to return to Germany after her ordeal She was buried in Rome but her heart was complying with Wittelsbach tradition enshrined in the Gnadenkapelle Chapel of the Miraculous Image at Altotting Post war edit nbsp Rupprecht with six of his children Rupprecht continued to advocate the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy upon his return but found no support from the US occupation authorities who however treated him courteously General Dwight D Eisenhower provided a special plane to fly him back to Munich in September 1945 and he returned to Schloss Leutstetten Of the 170 members of the Bavarian parliament 70 declared themselves to be monarchists in September 1954 a clear sign of support for the Crown Prince 18 Death editUpon his death in 1955 at Schloss Leutstetten at the age of 86 he was treated like a deceased monarch receiving a state funeral His life had spanned the independent Kingdom of Bavaria the German Empire the Weimar Republic Nazi Germany Allied occupied Germany and the establishment of West Germany and East Germany He is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich near his grandfather Prince Luitpold and great great grandfather King Maximilian I between his first wife Duchess Maria Gabrielle and his eldest son Prince Luitpold Marriages and children edit nbsp Crown Prince Rupprecht left with his son Albrecht and his grandson Franz in 1948 Rupprecht married twice and had children with both of his wives His first wife was Duchess Marie Gabriele in Bavaria 9 October 1878 24 October 1912 daughter of Duke Karl Theodor in Bavaria married on 10 July 1900 in Munich They had five children Luitpold Maximilian Ludwig Karl Hereditary Prince of Bavaria 8 May 1901 27 August 1914 died of polio Princess Irmingard Maria Therese Jose Cacilia Adelheid Michaela Antonia Adelgunde of Bavaria 21 September 1902 21 April 1903 died of diphtheria Albrecht Duke of Bavaria 3 May 1905 8 July 1996 Stillborn daughter 6 December 1906 Prince Rudolf Friedrich Rupprecht of Bavaria 30 May 1909 26 June 1912 died of diabetes His second wife was Princess Antonia of Luxembourg 7 October 1899 31 July 1954 daughter of William IV Grand Duke of Luxembourg married on 7 April 1921 in Lenggries They had six children Prince Heinrich Franz Wilhelm of Bavaria 28 March 1922 14 February 1958 Married non dynastically Anne Marie de Lustrac 1927 1999 19 No issue Heinrich was killed in a car accident in Argentina 19 His wife Anne was killed in a similar accident in Milan forty years later 19 Princess Irmingard Marie Josefa of Bavaria 29 May 1923 23 October 2010 Married her first cousin Prince Ludwig of Bavaria 1913 2008 and had issue Princess Editha Marie Gabriele Anna of Bavaria 16 September 1924 4 May 2013 Married first Tito Tommaso Maria Brunetti 1905 1954 and second Prof Gustav Christian Schimert 1910 1990 Had issue by both 20 Princess Hilda Hildegard Marie Gabriele of Bavaria 24 March 1926 5 May 2002 Married Juan Bradstock Edgar Lockett de Loayza 1912 1987 and had issue Princess Gabriele Adelgunde Marie Theresia Antonia of Bavaria 10 May 1927 19 April 2019 Married Carl 14th Duke of Croy 1914 2011 and had issue Princess Sophie Marie Therese of Bavaria b 20 June 1935 Married Prince Jean Engelbert 12th Duke of Arenberg 1921 2011 and has issue Titles styles and honours edit nbsp Royal monogram Titles and styles edit His full style was His Royal Highness Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand Crown Prince of Bavaria Duke of Bavaria of Franconia and in Swabia Count Palatine by the Rhine 6 Honours edit German honours 15 nbsp Bavaria Knight of St Hubert 21 Grand Prior of the Upper Palatinate of the Royal Bavarian House Equestrian Order of St George 1889 22 Grand Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph 23 August 1914 Grand Cross of the Military Merit Order with Swords nbsp Anhalt Grand Cross of the Order of Albert the Bear with Swords Friedrich Cross nbsp Baden Knight of the House Order of Fidelity 1887 23 Knight of the Order of Berthold the First 1887 24 Grand Cross of the Military Karl Friedrich Merit Order nbsp Brunswick Grand Cross of the Order of Henry the Lion War Merit Cross 2nd Class nbsp nbsp nbsp Ernestine duchies Grand Cross of the Saxe Ernestine House Order with Swords Cross for Merit in War Meiningen nbsp nbsp nbsp Free Hanseatic Cities Hanseatic Crosses nbsp Hesse and by Rhine Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order 22 March 1893 25 General Honor Decoration nbsp Prussia Knight of the Black Eagle 22 June 1890 26 Iron Cross 1914 1st and 2nd Classes Pour le Merite military 22 August 1915 with Oak Leaves 20 December 1916 nbsp Hohenzollern Cross of Honour of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern 1st Class nbsp Lippe Detmold War Honor Cross for Heroic Deeds War Merit Cross Cross of Honour of the House Order of Lippe 1st Class with Swords nbsp Mecklenburg Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown with Crown in Ore Military Merit Cross 1st Class Schwerin nbsp Oldenburg Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig with Golden Crown nbsp Saxony Knight of the Rue Crown 27 Knight of the Military Order of St Henry August 1914 Commander 2nd Class June 1915 Commander 1st Class January 1917 Grand Cross May 1918 nbsp Wurttemberg Grand Cross of the Wurttemberg Crown Grand Cross of the Military Merit Order Foreign honours 15 nbsp nbsp Austro Hungarian Imperial and Royal Family Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St Stephen 1893 28 Knight of the Golden Fleece 1900 29 Military Merit Cross 1st Class with War Decoration Military Merit Medal Signum Laudis nbsp Belgium Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold 1897 30 nbsp China Order of the Double Dragon First Class Second Grade ChDDI2 nbsp Italian Royal Family Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy ca 1914 Knight of the Annunciation 1948 Grand Cross of Saints Maurice and Lazarus 1948 nbsp Japan Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum 16 May 1905 31 nbsp Luxembourg Knight of the Gold Lion of Nassau 30 nbsp Ottoman Empire Order of Osmanieh 1st Class in Diamonds Turkish War Medal Gallipoli Star Gold Imtiaz Medal with Swords nbsp Romania Grand Cross of the Star of Romania nbsp Spain Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III with Collar 8 November 1908 32 nbsp Sweden Knight of the Seraphim 18 September 1897 33 nbsp Tuscan Grand Ducal Family Grand Cross of St Joseph nbsp Two Sicilian Royal Family Grand Cross of St Ferdinand and Merit nbsp United Kingdom Honorary Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian OrderMilitary ranks editSekondlieutenant 8 August 1886 Premierlieutenant 1 November 1891 Rittmeister 17 May 1893 Major 4 June 1896 Oberstleutenant Oberst 28 October 1899 Generalmajor 7 October 1900 Generalleutnant 11 November 1903 General der Infanterie 19 April 1906 Generaloberst 4 February 1913 Generalfeldmarschall 25 July 1916Ancestry editAncestors of Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria8 Ludwig I of Bavaria4 Luitpold Prince Regent of Bavaria9 Princess Therese of Saxe Hildburghausen2 Ludwig III of Bavaria10 Leopold II Grand Duke of Tuscany5 Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria11 Princess Maria Anna of Saxony1 Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria12 Francis IV Duke of Modena6 Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria Este13 Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy3 Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria Este14 Archduke Joseph Palatine of Hungary7 Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria15 Duchess Maria Dorothea of WurttembergReferences edit Barbara W Tuchman The Guns of August The Pulitzer Prize Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I Kindle Location 3936 Random House Publishing Group Kindle Edition a b Manfred Berger 2003 Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand Kronprinz von Bayern Pfalzgraf bei Rhein Herzog von Bayern Franken und in Schwaben usw In Bautz Traugott ed Biographisch Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon BBKL in German Vol 22 Nordhausen Bautz cols 1173 1186 ISBN 3 88309 133 2 a b Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria 1869 1955 J Rickard 6 November 2007 a b Wittelsbacher in German Historisches Lexikon Bayerns a b Tucker Spencer Roberts Priscilla Mary 2005 World War I Encyclopedia ABC CLIO ISBN 978 1 85109 420 2 a b c Turner Cambrai 1917 The birth of armoured warfare 15 a b Indy Neidell The Schlieffen Plan And Why It Failed I THE GREAT WAR Special feat AlternateHistoryHub 1 a b c d e Fischer Fritz Germany s War Aims in the First World War p 181 The National Archives Exhibitions amp Learning online First World War Glossary www nationalarchives gov uk The Kaiser s Warlords German Commanders of World War I Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern google book review pp 27 29 van Wyngarden G 2006 Early German Aces of World War I Osprey Publishing Ltd ISBN 1 84176 997 5 Royal Stuart Society Succession www royalstuartsociety com Archived from the original on 7 March 2023 Retrieved 13 July 2011 a b The New York Times 4 January 1922 The Prince of Possibilities Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern Archived from the original on 9 August 2009 Retrieved 29 April 2008 a b c Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand von Wittelsbach Kronprinz von Bayern K H the Prussian Machine Archived from the original on 23 October 2017 Retrieved 7 August 2020 Irvine Wendell C November 1931 Adolf Hitler The Man and His Ideas The Improvement Era p 13 Retrieved 13 November 2014 a b Royals and the Reich The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany google book review p 72 author Jonathan Petropoulos accessdate 29 April 2008 Die Monarchie als Staatsform in German Historisches Lexikon Bayerns Retrieved 29 April 2008 a b c de Badts de Cugnac Chantal Coutant de Saisseval Guy Le Petit Gotha Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery Paris 2002 p 34 French ISBN 2 9507974 3 1 Rhodes Michael 9 May 2013 Peerage News Princess Editha Marie Gabrielle Anna of Bavaria 1924 2013 Hof und Staats Handbuch des Konigreich Bayern 1908 Konigliche Orden p 7 Hof und Staats Handbuch Bayern 1908 Konigliche Orden p 11 Hof und Staats Handbuch des Grossherzogtum Baden 1896 Grossherzogliche Orden p 63 Hof und Staats Handbuch Baden 1896 Grossherzogliche Orden p 77 Ludewigs orden Grossherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste in German Darmstadt Staatsverlag 1914 p 5 via hathitrust org Schwarzer Adler orden Koniglich Preussische Ordensliste supp in German vol 1 Berlin 1886 p 5 via hathitrust org a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Justus Perthes Almanach de Gotha 1914 p 14 A Szent Istvan Rend tagjai Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Boettger T F Chevaliers de la Toison d Or Knights of the Golden Fleece La Confrerie Amicale Retrieved 25 June 2019 a b Albert I Museum Dynasticum N 21 2009 n 2 pag 30 刑部芳則 2017 明治時代の勲章外交儀礼 PDF in Japanese 明治聖徳記念学会紀要 p 150 Real y distinguida orden de Carlos III Guoa Oficial de Espana in Spanish 1914 p 200 retrieved 4 March 2019 Sveriges statskalender in Swedish 1905 p 441 Retrieved 6 January 2018 via runeberg org Works editMein Kriegstagebuch Munchen Deutscher National Verlag 1929 Reiseerinnerungen aus Indien Munchen Josef Kosel amp Friedrich Pustet 1922 Reiseerinnerungen aus Ostasien Munchen Josef Kosel amp Friedrich Pustet 1923 Reiseerinnerungen aus dem Sudosten Europas und dem Orient Munchen Josef Kosel amp Friedrich Pustet 1923 Further reading editBerger Manfred 2003 Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand Kronprinz von Bayern Pfalzgraf bei Rhein Herzog von Bayern Franken und in Schwaben usw In Bautz Traugott ed Biographisch Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon BBKL in German Vol 22 Nordhausen Bautz cols 1173 1186 ISBN 3 88309 133 2 Crown Prince Rupprecht Firstworldwar com Garnett Robert S Jr Lion Eagle and Swastika Bavarian Monarchism in Weimar Germany 1918 1933 Rickard J Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria 1869 1955 Historyofwar org Sendtner Kurt Rupprecht von Wittelsbach Kronprinz von Bayern Munchen Richard Pflaum 1954 Weiss Dieter J Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern Eine politische Biografie Regensburg Friedrich Pustet 2007 External links edit nbsp Media related to Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria at Wikimedia Commons nbsp Wikisource has the text of the 1922 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Rupprecht Boff Jonathan Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria in 1914 1918 online International Encyclopedia of the First World War Crown Prince Rupprecht 1914 Page links to Windows Media File 17 seconds 479KB Newspaper clippings about Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Rupprecht Crown Prince of BavariaHouse of WittelsbachBorn 18 May 1869 Died 2 August 1955 Titles in pretence Preceded byLudwig III King of Bavaria TITULAR King of Bavaria18 October 1921 2 August 1955Reason for succession failure Kingdom abolished in 1918 Succeeded byAlbrecht Duke of Bavaria Preceded byArchduchess Maria Theresa of Austria Este TITULAR King of England Scotland and Ireland3 February 1919 2 August 1955 Military offices Preceded byFormed from IV Army Inspectorate IV Armee Inspektion Commander 6th Army2 August 1914 28 August 1916 Succeeded byGeneraloberst Ludwig von Falkenhausen Preceded byFormed from Army Group Gallwitz Commander Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria28 August 1916 11 November 1918 Dissolved Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria amp oldid 1217774767, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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