Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse
Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse (born actually Moritz Prince and Landgrave of Hesse; Italian Maurizio d' Assia, born August 6, 1926 at Racconigi, Piedmont castle, † May 23, 2013 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German entrepreneur and since 1980 head of of the former ruling house of Hesse.
Name
Moritz Friedrich Karl Emmanuel Humbert Prince and Landgrave of Hesse resigned as head of the House of Hesse by shortening the bourgeois legal name while using the name component " Landgraf " and therefore was as Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse known. The house had the former Grand Dukes of Hesse and by Rhine ( Hessen- Darmstadt) the family name " Prince of Hesse and by Rhine ". Their last Agnat Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine and his wife Margaret of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Lord Auckland Geddes, adopted in 1960 Moritz Prince and Landgrave of Hesse. Since then, he wore both names until 1988 part of the name " Prince of Hesse and by Rhine " took off again.
Life
Moritz of Hesse was the eldest son of Philip of Hesse and Princess Mafalda of Savoy, a daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III. of Italy. He was a great-grandson of Emperor Frederick III. and great-grandson of Queen Victoria. He came from the younger, Landgrave line of the main line of the house of Hesse-Cassel Hesse.
Said in his youth Maurizio d' Assia Moritz of Hesse spent his early years in Rome and in Kassel. After the death of his mother in 1944 in Buchenwald concentration camp he lived in Kronberg im Taunus. After serving in the military service, he studied agriculture. He managed the Panker in Schleswig -Holstein.
Moritz of Hesse- Kassel in 1960 by Ludwig Prince of Hesse and by Rhine († 1968), the childless head of the other main line of Hesse-Darmstadt in the house of Hesse, adopted and used as a heritage. Due to the inheritance, the two separate main lines from 1567 were combined in his person again.
He succeeded his father Philip of Hesse in 1980 according to traditional guidelines of the German nobility Legal Committee as a "boss" of the House of Hesse (Main Hessen- Kassel) gradually united the house as a legacy of his adoptive father Ludwig of Hesse to the second main line ( Hesse -Darmstadt ).
He brought a considerable part of the family assets of both houses in the Hessian House Foundation and was chairman of the foundation managing the historic cultural property. In acquired with Napoleon's defeat of the house of Hesse- Kassel hunting lodge pheasant ( Adolphseck ) at Fulda many valuable exhibits of numerous other castles of the family were collected and exhibited after the Second World War. Also have the 5-star hotels Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt and the Schlosshotel Kronberg, the winery Prince of Hesse in Geisenheim / Rheingau and the castle and stud Panker in the Holstein Switzerland asset of the Foundation. Also the Scuol in the Lower Engadine castle belonged until 2012 to the family estate. Moritz von Hessen first lived mainly on Panker, since the death of his aunt and adoptive mother Margaret of Hesse and by Rhine 1997 Wolf Castle Garden.
Moritz of Hesse was seen as an important patron of the arts in Hesse and was for 1999 with the highest honor the State of Hesse, Georg-August -tin medal awarded. He was also active for the Institute for New Technical form in Darmstadt and promoted the Kronberg Academy.
Moritz of Hesse died at the age of 86 years in a Frankfurt hospital pulmonary distress. The funeral took place on 3 June 2013, the laying out in the St. John's Church in Kronberg im Taunus instead. He was buried in the castle cemetery Kronberg.
Progeny
With his ex-wife Princess Tatiana of Sayn -Wittgenstein- Berleburg ( b. 1940 ), daughter of Gustav Albrecht zu Sayn -Wittgenstein- Berleburg, was Moritz von Hessen father of four children:
- Mafalda ( b. 1965 )
- Heinrich Donatus ( b. 1966 )
- Elena (born 1967 )
- Philip ( b. 1970 )