Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernst Ludwig ( Ernst Ludwig Karl Albert Wilhelm ) ( born November 25, 1868 in Darmstadt, † October 9, 1937 in Wolf Castle Garden in Langen, Hesse ) was 1892-1918 Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.
Life and Family
Ernst Ludwig came from the most recent branch of the House of Hesse and was the last Grand Duke of Hesse -Darmstadt. His parents were Grand Duke Ludwig IV and his wife Alice of Great Britain and Ireland. His maternal grandmother was the British Queen Victoria.
1894 Ernst Ludwig married his cousin Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, the daughter of his uncle Duke Alfred of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha and Maria Alexandrovna Romanova. His sister Alix married in the same year the later Russian Tsar Nicholas II
Because of his broken marriage he divorced in 1901 by Victoria Melita, with whom he had the daughter Elisabeth ( 1895-1903 ). According to rumors in Darmstadt, Ernst Ludwig to have had extramarital relations with women and men.
In 1905, he married Eleonore zu Solms- Lich - Hohensolms ( 1871-1937 ). From this marriage was born in 1906 Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus and his brother Louis were born ( 1908-1968 ).
In the month after his death in October 1937 died in a plane crash near Ostend, his wife and his son Georg Donatus and his wife Cecilia and the children of Ludwig and Alexander. They are all buried in the park Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt.
Family
Drive up
Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and by Rhine (1753-1830) ∞ 1777 Luise Henriette Caroline of Hesse -Darmstadt (1761-1829)
Charles Louis of Baden (1755-1801) ∞ 1774 Amalie of Hesse- Darmstadt (1754-1832)
Duke Frederick of Saxony -Hildburghausen (1763-1834) ∞ 1785 Charlotte Georgine Luise of Mecklenburg -Strelitz (1769-1818)
King Frederick William II of Prussia (1744-1797) ∞ 1769 Friederike of Hesse- Darmstadt (1751-1805)
Duke Franz von Sachsen- Coburg -Saalfeld (1750-1806) ∞ 1777 Countess Auguste Reuss to Ebersdorf (1757-1831)
Duke August of Saxe- Gotha -Altenburg (1772-1822) ∞ 1797 Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg -Schwerin (1779-1801)
King George III. of Great Britain and Ireland (1738-1820) ∞ 1761 Sophie Charlotte of Mecklenburg -Strelitz (1744-1818)
Duke Franz von Sachsen- Coburg -Saalfeld (1750-1806) ∞ 1777 countess Auguste Reuss to Ebersdorf (1757-1831)
Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and by Rhine (1777-1848) ∞ 1804 Wilhelmine of Baden (1788-1836)
Wilhelm of Prussia (1783-1851) ∞ 1804 Anna Maria Amalie of Hesse- Homburg (1785-1846)
Duke Ernst I of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha (1784-1844) ∞ 1817 Louise of Saxe-Gotha -Altenburg (1800-1831)
Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820) ∞ 1818 Victoire of Saxe- Coburg -Saalfeld (1786-1861)
Charles of Hesse -Darmstadt (1809-1877) ∞ 1836 Elisabeth of Prussia (1815-1885)
Albert of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861) ∞ 1840 Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland (1819-1901)
Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine (1837-1892) ∞ 1862 Alice of Great Britain and Ireland (1843-1878)
Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine (1868-1937)
Progeny
His marriage to Victoria Melita of Saxe -Coburg and Gotha:
- Elisabeth Marie Alice Victoria ( born March 11, 1895 in Darmstadt, † November 16, 1903 in Skierniewice )
- Stillborn son (* / † 1900)
From his marriage with Eleonore zu Solms- Lich - Hohensolms:
- Georg Donatus Wilhelm Nikolaus Eduard Heinrich Karl ( born November 8, 1906 in Darmstadt, † November 16, 1937 in Ostend)
- Ludwig Hermann Alexander Clovis ( born November 20, 1908 in Darmstadt, † May 30, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main )
Training
For the formation of Prince Ernst Ludwig initially by Dr. Hans Dadelsen and from March 1879 Moritz Muther was responsible. The teachers also took over the school education. This was according to the curriculum of the Darmstadt secondary school. Those subjects that Moritz Muther did not cover were covered by the subject teachers of secondary school. So was the rector of the grammar school, Ludwig Münch, the chemistry. The Music Lesson has been granted by the court conductor Willem de Haan.
From May 1889 until the summer of 1890 he studied law at the University of Leipzig. He was accompanied by Gustav Roemheld, who would later become the head of cabinet Ernst Ludwig. In the winter semester 1890/91 he moved to the Hessian State University Giessen, where he finished his studies in the spring of 1891.
Military Ranks
As a high nobleman, it was common that Ernst Ludwig struck a military career. He therefore received a basic military training and was regularly promoted to higher ranks without having had a significant military activity. He was:
Policy
1896 joined Ernst Ludwig for the Hessian Ludwig Railway with Prussia a contract for a railway community. With the aim of " My Hesse country flourish and in his art", Ernst Ludwig 1899 the Darmstadt Artists' Colony ( " Mathilde Höhe" ) and promoted as a patron among others, the renowned artist Peter Behrens, Hans Christiansen, Ludwig Habich, Bernhard Hoetger, Albin Müller and Joseph Maria Olbrich. 1901 was the first exhibition of the artists' colony under the title instead of A Document of German Art in Darmstadt. Three other exhibitions followed in 1904, 1908 and 1914.
After the November Revolution of 1918, he refused to abdicate and was therefore dropped from Darmstadt Workers' and Soldiers on 9 November 1918. Hesse -Darmstadt became the nation state.
The Prince expropriation
With the overthrow of the Grand Duke was a need to separate his private assets from public assets. This, an agreement was reached on May 9, 1919 between the People's State of Hesse and the Grand Duke. The principles were here that the domains should be state property, the grand ducal house however, an indemnity condition. Measure of compensation was not the value of the domains, but the height of the civil list, less government tasks (eg the financing of the Court Theatre ), which had been denied from the monarch. As a severance severance payment of 10 million marks was set that has been done as a government bond with a 4% interest rates and a cash payment of 900,000 marks. As Schatullgut the castle Seeheim, the New Palace and the castle Tarasp were agreed. The domains Hötensleben and Oebisfelde in Saxony and castle and domain Fischbach in Silesia also remained as Schatullgut because they were outside of Hesse.
Reach the treatment of the assets of the former ruling houses was controversial. 1926 failed referendum that called for the expropriation without compensation prince. In other countries it came to national legal expropriation that ( a landmark judgment was the judgment of the Supreme Court on June 18, 1925 with respect to the claims of the Dukes of Saxe- Gotha ) due to the property guarantee in Article 153 of the Weimar Constitution were repealed.
As a result, it came to renewed negotiations which culminated in the Treaty of May 6, 1930 between land and Grand Duke. In this Agreement, the provisions of 1919 were largely confirmed and the amount of compensation (especially in regard to inflation ) set at 8 million gold marks. 1934 was the control (with the only change being that the property Ernst Ludwig was changed to Castle Romrod in a lifelong residence) stipulated final by state law.
Works
Ernst Ludwig worked as a writer and as a composer.
Under the pseudonym " E. Man "was the children play at the Court Theatre Darmstadt on December 19, 1909 " presented Boniface ". The piece listed until 1914 seven times came from the pen of the Grand Duke (the music was from Willem de Haan ). With "Easter" he created in 1919 (new edition 1921), another play ( under the pseudonym EK Ludhard ). The first performance took place on March 21, 1921 at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg under Dr. Paul Eger. The poems " Verses" was published in 1917 in Leipzig Kurt Wolff Verlag. In addition, he has left two texts that were not intended for publication:
- An autobiography: [ Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig memories ]. In: Eckhart G. Franz ( ed.): is remembered - records of the last Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine. Darmstadt 1983. ISBN 3-7929-0131-5, pp. 19-162.
- Basic ideas of a constitutional prince. In: Eckhart G. Franz ( ed.): is remembered - records of the last Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine. Darmstadt 1983. ISBN 3-7929-0131-5, pp. 163-178.
He was also the composer of a number of smaller musical works.
Honors
A high school in Bad Nauheim and a primary school in Worms are called after him, "Ernst -Ludwig- school". The Mainzer Ernst- Ludwig-Platz was named after him.
The Technical University of Darmstadt (now Technical University of Darmstadt ) awarded him on 6 July 1900, honorary doctorate ( Doctor of Engineering ). He had the university previously awarded the doctorate law on 25 November 1899. 1918, the Ernst- Ludwig University Society was founded in his presence.