Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, Germany's Uncrowned Empress

Kaiserin Hermine, the Kaiser and her youngest daughter, Henriette, in Doorn, about 1931. Image from Wikimedia Commons 

The House of Reuss-Greiz ruled one of the petty German principalities that formed part of the German Empire. One of its members, Hermine, married the ex-German Kaiser Wilhelm II.  Born on December 1, 1877, Hermine was the fourth daughter and fifth of six children of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz, and his wife, Princess Ida Mathilde Adelheid of Schaumburg-Lippe.

Following her mother’s early death, Hermine was raised by Princess Louise of Prussia, daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Described as “pretty, quaint looking little girl” with “roguish demeanor and gay smile,” Princess Hermine married her first husband, Prince Johann George Ludwig Ferdinand August of Schönaich-Carolath, who was 14 years her senior, on January 7, 1907 in Greiz.

From this marriage came five children. The oldest, Prince Hans Georg Heinrich Ludwig Friedrich Hermann Ferdinand (1907–1943), married Baroness Sibylle von Zedlitz und Leipe. He was killed in action at the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The second child, Prince Georg Wilhelm (1909 –1927), died unmarried. The third child, Princess Hermine Caroline Wanda Ida Luise Feodora Viktoria Auguste of Schönaich-Carolath (1910 –1959), married Hugo Herbert Hartung. Another son, Prince Ferdinand Johann Georg Hermann Heinrich Ludwig Wilhelm Friedrich August (1913 –1973), married Rose Rauch, then Baroness Margret von Seckendorff. The fifth child, Princess Henriette Hermine Wanda Ida Luise (1918 –1972), married Wilhelm II's grandson Prince Karl Franz of Prussia (son of Prince Joachim of Prussia) in 1940, with whom she had children.

Hermine with her children in 1923. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Alas, Prince Johann, suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1920. In January of 1922, Hermine’s son sent birthday wishes to the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II, who, in his turn, invited him and her mother to Huis Doorn in Netherlands.

"The Crown Prince warned me," she said, "that the Kaiser was a hard man to get on with, but later he said that the warning was unnecessary, adding, 'You know how to manage people.'"

The former sovereign was smitten by Hermine’s beauty and he greatly enjoyed her company. The two had a lot in common and both were recently widowed. Despite objections from his monarchist supporters and his children, Wilhelm II was determined to marry Hermine. Wilhelm II and Hermine were also fifth cousins through common descent from George II of Great Britain.

The 63-year-old Wilhelm II married the 34-year-old Hermine on November 5, 1922 in Doorn. Wilhelm wore his field-marshal's uniform, and his sons were arrayed in their gaudy trappings of militarism. The bridal couple sat in two crimson-guilt chairs draped with gilt covers and decorated with crowns in front of the pulpit with relatives and witnesses in fours behind.

The whole of the service at the wedding breakfast was silver, including a silver model of Sr. George and the dragon,which occupied the end opposite the Kaiser. The presents, however, were austere and comprised flowers from the Queen of the Netherlands: and a souvenir from' the ex-Kaiser's old- junker friends, explaining that postwar poverty prevented the purchase of a lavish gift.

Hermine with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Image from Wikimedia Commons

The Berlin daily, Vorwärts, reports that Kaiser Wilhelm ordered a diadem of 700 diamonds set in a platinum and pandant earrings as a wedding gift for his bride. The smallest stone used in it is a half-carat. The diadem cost 8 million marks (about £45,000 in 1922 rate). Vorwarts calls the gift as proof of the Kaiser's "ostentatious and extravagant reign. The "Loyalist Journal" was quick to defend the former German ruler, saying the diadem was already a long-term possession of the Hohenzollerns. It was, apparently, a wedding gift of the Silesian noblemen, to the kaiserin Augusta Victoria. The kaiser's children was only too unhappy at the gift of their dead mother's jewels to the kaiser's new wife.

Even after his abdication, Wilhelm II continued to use his royal styles and titles, thus, following their marriage, Hermine was styled “Her Imperial Majesty The German Empress, Queen of Prussia”.

Hermine shared her husband’s anti-Semitism and remained as his constant companion until the emperors death in 1941. She looked after the property management of Huis Doorn and also established her own relief organization. She eventually moved back to Germany and took up residence at his first husband’s estate in Saabor, Lower Silesia.

In the course of the Vistula–Oder Offensive in early 1945, Hermine fled from the advancing Red Army and settled in at her sister's estate in Rossla, Thuringia. Nothing was known of the whereabouts of this inveterate consort until she was dramatically discovered in April, 1945, living with six relatives in the 84 roomed castle on the Hartz Mountains, which was then used as a command post.

A British correspondent graphically described finding Hermine "dressed in black, fingering strings of pearls, constantly drinking strong coffee, and surrounded by pictures of the Kaiser."

Kaiserin Hermine at Huis Doorn, about 1933. Image from Wikimedia

Referring to the pictures she told the correspondent: "I loved him. He was a poor man with the wrong sort of children, but I loved him.

Leaving her jewels, she set out with a party in several cars, in an attempt to make the terrible journey to Berlin, with the roads jammed with refugees. However, the Russians apprehended her, and refused to let her live in one of Berlin's Hohenzollern houses.

The princess was next heard of in November, 1946, living in a house with a Ukrainian refugee family at Frankfurt-on-Oder in the Russian zone. She was eventually placed under house arrest at Frankfurt on the Oder in the Soviet occupation zone following the end of World War II. She was later imprisoned in the Paulinenhof Internment Camp. She was finally allowed to live in a small flat in Frankfurt, closely guarded but given the freedom of the immediate neighborhood. Whenever she ventured out she was invariably accompanied by Russian officers.

Nevertheless the precautions did not prevent her suffering a further harrowing experience in February last. She was returning from a Frankfort theater when thieves attacked and robbed her, pulling off her fur coat and taking her handbag. Although several old retainers were allowed to live with her until her death, including her former chauffeur, it is believed the Russians forced Hermine to live most frugally denying her all but the lowest scale rations because she was not working.

One of the mysteries about Hermine’s life was the fate of her jewelry. Berlin agents in the US Army's Criminal Investigation Department allegedly searched for the her missing jewels, estimated to be worth £125,000. The agents said the jewels vanished in the US sector while in the possession of her son, Prince Ferdinand Schonach-Carolath.

Empress Hermine suddenly died of heart attack on August 7, 1947 while under strict guard by the Red Army occupation forces. She was 59 years old. Her remains were laid at the Antique Temple of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam.