Figure 1--Here we see the four princes all done up in white sailor suits. The portrait is undated, but looks to have been taken about 1911.

Crown Prince Friederich-Wilhelm and Cecilie had six children, four boys and finally two little girls. At this time we have only limited information about them, although the photographic record gives us considerable information about how they were dressed as the children. Their mother commonly dressed them in identical outfits. Tunics were very popular. Generally they were dressed in simple, rather comfortable outfits. The boys did not wear sailor suits as commonly as other German children when they were little, but as school-age boys they did wear sailor suits. With the advent of World War I we have far fewer images of the children. And as the girls arrived during the War, we have less information about them. As young men after World War I, they were of coursed shocked by the disolution of the monarchy. Some engaged in right-wing politics and flirted with the NAZIs who were anxious to burnish their image with royal associations. Their grand father was more suspious and stayed in the Netherlands. Two of the boys joined the Wehrmacht. Crown Prince Prince Wilhelm was killed in France. The public reaction in Germany was so intense that Hitler banned members of the royal family from engaging in combat.

Wilhelm Hohenzollern (1906-40)

Wilhelm was the oldest child. He was brought up in the pomp and cerremony of the royal family. No one could have conceived when he was a younger child that he would not father his grandfather and eventually father to be Kaiser of Germany. He was 12 years old when Germany had to sue for peace and his Grandfather was forced to abdicate. After the War, Kaiser Wilhelm II, insisted that Prince Wilhelm renounce his rights of succession when he mairred a commoner, Dorothea von Salviati in 1933. Wilhelm Frederich was in many ways a typical Hohenzollerens. Like many of his ancestors, he pursued a military career and was every inch a Prussian soldier. He joined the NAZI Party, mistakingly believing like his father and uncles that the NAZIs would reinstante the Hohenzollerens. He died in battle during World War II in 1940.

Louis Ferdinand Hohenzollern (1907-94)

Prince Louis Ferdinand was born on November 9, 1907, at the Marmor Palais in Potsdam. At his birth, very few would have thought that one day Louis-Ferdinand would become the head of the German imperial family. As a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Louis-Ferdinand was placed third in the line of succession behind his father, Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm, and his elder brother Prince Wilhelm, born in 1906. By the time his father died in 1951, Louis-Ferdinand's eldest brother had renounced his rights to the throne in 1933 to marry a commoner. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia died in battle during 1940. Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia served as the head of his family for more than four decades, taking responsibility of family affairs for several decades.

Hubertus Hohenzollern (1909-50)

I know very little about Prince Hubertus Hohenzollern. He was the third son of Crown Prince Frederich Wilhelm, the oldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Like his father and uncles, Hubertus and his brothers were largely dressed in sailor suits as boys. This was true even after his Grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918. The German princes wore their sailor suits with both long and short pants. Humbertus is pictured here in a long pants sailor suit.

Frederick Hohenzollern (1911-66)

Prince Frederick was born in 1911. We have little information about his life. He appears to have moved to England, but I am not sure just when. He married Lady Brigid Katherine Rachel Guinness in England (St.Cecilia's Church, Little Hadham, Herts.) after World War II in 1945. They had five children which were born in England. Frederick assumed the surname Mansfield says Weir, but in Debrett's he has the surname of Von Preussen. He dissapeared on April 19, 1966 and his drowned body was found on May 1 at Reinhartshausen.

Alexandrine Hohenzollern (1915-80)

Alexandrine had Downs Syndrome. It is notable in an age where families common were ashamed of children with disabilities and commonly hid them away that the the Crown Prince and Princess did not do this. Compare this with Prince John in George V's family or the mercy killing tht the NAZIs took. Alexandrine had postcards made of her and was not shut away. Her parents were not particularly forward-thinking in other areas, but they seemed to have pin as regards children with disabilities.

Cecilie Hohenzollern (1917-75)

Cecilie was of course named after her mother.

Created: 6:34 PM 11/19/2008
Last updated: 6:34 PM 11/19/2008