Alexander, Prince of Lippe

Karl Alexander of Lippe ( born January 16, 1831 in Detmold, † January 13, 1905 in St. Gilgen mountain at Donndorf ) was from 1895 to 1905 nominally reigning Prince of Lippe, but incapacitated as mentally ill. Until 1897 led Schaumburg -Lippe the regency, from 1897 Lippe- Biesterfeld, from 1905 final Lippe- Biesterfeld. The changing reign is known as Lippe succession dispute.

Life

Prince Alexander was the seventh child of Leopold and Emilie of Schwarzburg- Sondershausen. He served as a captain in the regiment of the Guards of the King of Hanover. After a fall from a horse in 1851 the first signs of mental disorder were felt until 1861. End of 1871, his condition had become untenable, so that its incapacitation and the transfer to the sanatorium St. Gilgen mountain at Bayreuth was necessary. Official reports noted incurable hereditary mental illness, making the question of the origin of these recurring mental retardation was raised in the home lip. Psychiatric studies in 1884, 1895 and 1904 were only able to identify the incurable.

Of the direct ancestors of Alexander his grandfather Leopold I is known, who was partly due to mental disorder under the guardianship of his uncle Ludwig. Even Prince Frederick (1797-1854), the second son of Leopold I, is called mentally unbalanced than temporarily. Schizophrenic traits also showed Prince Casimir August (1777-1809), the brother of Leopold I, so that mental disorder was considered hereditary evil of the house lip. The not unusual in European nobility inbreeding will have contributed a considerable amount to; so married into the royal house Detmold repeatedly princesses from the houses of Nassau and a clue.

With Alexander's death on January 13, 1905, died in the line of Lippe Detmold Princely House.