Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.html



Friedrich Franz (V)
Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Head of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Reign	17 November 1945 – 31 July 2001
Predecessor	Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV
Successor	None
Spouse	Karin Elisabeth von Schaper
Full name	Freidrich Franz Michael Wilhelm Nikolaus Franz-Joseph Ernst August Hans
Royal house	House of Mecklenburg
Father	Friedrich Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mother	Princess Alexandra of Hanover
Born	April 22, 1910(1910-04-22) Schwerin
Died	July 31, 2001 (aged 91) Hamburg

Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (German: Friedrich Franz Erbgroßherzog von Mecklenburg-Schwerin; 22 April 1910  – 31 July 2001) was the heir apparent to the throne of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and a member of the SS. He became head of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1945 with the house becoming extinct on his death.

Early life

He was born in Schwerin the eldest child of the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Friedrich Franz IV and his wife Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland a daughter of Crown Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Princess Thyra of Denmark. Following the defeat of the German Empire in World War I his father abdicated on 14 November 1918 although he did not succeed to the throne as the Empire was replaced with the Weimar Republic.

Post monarchy

In May 1931 against the will of his father,¹ Friedrich Franz joined the SS and by 1936 he had been promoted to the rank of Hauptsturmführer.² He was posted to Denmark during World War II where he worked at the German embassy as a personal aide to Werner Best.² He spent the summer months of 1944 serving with the Waffen-SS tank corps.²

In May 1943 a family council was called by the Grand Ducal family and Friedrich Franz was passed over as heir in favour of his younger brother Duke Christian Ludwig who would instead inherit the family property.¹ He became head of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on 17 November 1945 following the death of his father.

Friedrich Franz married Karin Elisabeth von Schaper (b. 1920) the daughter of Walter von Schaper and his wife Baroness Louise von Münchhausen on 11 June 1941 at Wiligrad. They divorced on 22 September 1967 but remarried a decade later in Glücksburg on 27 April 1977.³ The death of his brother Duke Christian Ludwig in 1996 left Friedrich Franz as the only male member of the grand ducal house. As he had no children and his brother had only two daughters following his death in Hamburg the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin became extinct in the male line.

Ancestry

Notes

Sources

• Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006). Royals and the Reich: The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195161335. 
• Huberty, Michel; Alain Giraud, F. et B. Magdelaine. L'Allemagne Dynastique, Tome VI : Bade-Mecklembourg. ISBN 9782901138068.