The Prince In The Rhine: The Tragic End of Friedrich of Prussia (1911-1966)

The Prince In The Rhine: 

The Tragic End of Friedrich of Prussia (1911-1966)

German Crown Princess Cecile with her son Prince Friedrich

The Four Princes of Prussia: (left to right) Friedrich, Hubertus, Louis Ferdinand, and Wilhelm

Prince Friedrich of Prussia in 1922

Born at Berlin on 19 December 1911, Prince Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Christoph of Prussia was the fourth son and child of German Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecile (née Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin).

Prince Friedrich of Prussia in the 1930s

In 1936, Friedrich attended the funeral of King George V, which took place on 28 January. The prince's future brother-in-law, Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, the husband of Lady Honor Guinness, remarked in his diaries: "Fritzi of Prussia looked very handsome in a white uniform, and the King of Rumania [Carol II] look ridiculous as ever." Later that same year, the Channons paid a visit to Germany from August until September. During their stay, Chips and Honor were invited by Friedrich to visit his mother the Crown Princess. Chips recalled this episode in his diary entry of 10 August 1936:

Yesterday Fritzy rang up to say that his mother, the Crown Princess, expected us to luncheon today, and we wondered what to wear for this royal engagement. 

I thought that grey flannels would be appropriate for lunch in the country anywhere, but, on the whole, we decided black might be more correct and so black it was, with Harold Balfour and I in our House of Commons uniforms, and Honor beautifully dressed in semi-grand 'dayers.' Cecilienhof, which the Imperial Family thinks looks very English, is a dreadful Lutyens sort of house, ugly and bogus Tudor, built just before the war. That it overlooks a lake is its only consolation. Fritzy met us and led us to the water's edge, where we found Princess Cécile, his second sister, an intelligent, half cross-eyed girl of eighteen, bathing with young Lord Jellicoe. The house itself is very royal with plush, palms, bareness, and faded, signed photographs of dead monarchs. Fritzy showed us his mother's bath-cum-dressing room, which she has fitted up as a yacht, to remind her of Kiel, and we were laughing a little, when the door opened and the Crown Princess walked in, large, smiling, and gracious. 'Thank you so much for all your kindness to my child,' she said to the curtseying Honor. She looked very, very royal, with gold, jingling bracelets, large single pearl earrings, simple clothes and a Fabergé brooch. We filed in to luncheon in a large dining room and Honor was between the two princes, I on the right of the Crown Princess. She is indeed very much a Mecklenburg, that is, dark and rather Russian (she is a double first cousin of my adored Princess Nicholas, whose mother, the Grand Duchess Vladimir, was a Mecklenburg). All the Mecklenburgs have a frivolous outlook and are dark, charming and well-bred. Princess Marina, for instance. They all have a habit of talking in a slightly guttural voice, and their catch phrases are 'poor thing,' 'do you find,' and 'it makes me the impression.'

The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland

In May 1937, Prince Friedrich attended a ball hosted by the George and Eileen, Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. Again, we turn to Chips Channon, who, as ever, was present and ready to document his impressions of the evening. On 18 May, Chips took to his diary:

The Sutherlands' Ball. A dazzling night. Honor looked magnificent with all her sapphires, tiara and a resplendent blue brocade number made to match the Amalienburg and we were hardly dressed and down before the brace of young princelings, Ernst August of Hanover, and Fritzy of Prussia, very young, fair and Nordic and dripping with decorations, arrived almost too punctually. Soon after nine we swept into dinner, and the dining room was a gorgeous, glittering sight of jewels shimmering in the candle-light, of Meissen china, of decorations and splendour. Mrs Grenville was delighted to be next to the young Prince of Prussia and there was great stimmung and excitement. At 10.45 Honor and I with Ernst August, jumped into our car, and armed with a special white card we drove to the Royal entrance - rather to everyone's annoyance, at Hampden House. The Ball was the best spectacle so far of the summer; we were ushered into an improved ballroom hung with tapestries, with, at one end, an enormous dais of red baize where all the Royalties of the earth seemed congregated. We had barely arrived when the King and Queen entered with the Sutherlands. All four were gay, smiling and impressive, and I noticed how both the King and Queen have gained greatly in presence and dignity. They went up to the queue of Royalties and greeted them all, kissing many. The Queen was in white, with an ugly spiked tiara, and she showed no sign of her supposed pregnancy, which I am beginning to doubt. The King followed her, showing his teeth. Queen Mary was in icy blue; soon the ball began. Honor and I were dancing near the dais when we caught Queen Mary's eye, and we stopped to curtsey and bow as she held out her hand. Then Honor and I became separated and I danced with Lady Iveagh. Later I danced with Alice Hofmannsthal, and we went up to the dais to talk to Princess Olga who was wearing her mother's ruby parure. We chatted with her for a few minutes, and as we turned we saw the King and Queen coming up to us, and they very smilingly talked to us. Both Alice and I were thrilled, which was unreasonable as we have both known them for years, and at one time intimately.

The remainder of this expanded article is in EUROHISTORY, Issue CXXI – Spring 2019 !

For more on the Royal Families of Europe, please subscribe to ERHJ by clicking on the link:

Subscribe to Eurohistory!