by Scott Mehl
© Unofficial Royalty 2021
Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse was head of the House of Hesse, and pretender to the former Grand Ducal throne of Hesse and by Rhine from 1980 until his death in 2013.
Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, Head of the House of Hesse; photo: Wikipedia
Moritz Friedrich Karl Emanuel Humbert, Prince of Hesse-Kassel, was born at the Castle of Racconigi in Italy on August 6, 1926. He was the eldest child of Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse and Princess Mafalda of Savoy. Moritz had three younger siblings:
- Heinrich of Hesse-Kassel (1927) – unmarried
- Otto of Hesse-Kassel (1937) – married (1) Angela von Doering, no issue; (2) Elisabeth Bonker, no issue
- Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel (1940) – married Count Friedrich von Oppersdorff, had issue
Moritz with his mother and younger brother. photo: Wikipedia
Raised primarily in Italy, Moritz returned to Germany in 1943 and served briefly in the German forces. That year, both of his parents were arrested by the Nazis and placed in different concentration camps. His mother died in 1943 as a result of injuries after the Buchenwald concentration camp was bombed. His father was released but then taken into custody by Allied forces until his eventual release in 1947. After his military service, Moritz studied agriculture and took over the administration of the family’s estate at Gut Panker in Schleswig-Holstein (link in German).
In 1960, Moritz was adopted by his distant relative Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine. Ludwig had no children and would be the last member of the House of Hesse and by Rhine. This adoption ensured that the former grand ducal family’s estates and assets would remain in the Hesse family upon his death.
In June 1964, Moritz married Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, the daughter of Gustav Albrecht, 5th Prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Margareta Fouché d’Otrante. The couple had four children before divorcing in 1974:
- Mafalda (1965) – married (1) Enrico dei Conti Marone Cinzano, no issue; (2) Carlo Galdo, has issue; (3) Ferdinando Peretti, has issue
- Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse (1966) – married Countess Floria Franziska of Faber-Castell, has issue
- Elena (1967) – unmarried, has issue
- Philip (1970) – married Laetitia Bechtoff, has issue
Moritz succeeded his father as Head of the House of Hesse and pretender to the former grand ducal throne of Hesse and by Rhine in 1980. Having also inherited the holdings of the former House of Hesse and by Rhine some years earlier, Moritz contributed many of these assets and much of his vast personal art collection to the Hesse Family Foundation which oversees and manages the family’s estates and collections. These include the Schlosshotel Kronberg, which was originally built as Schloss Friedrichshof by his great-grandmother, Empress Friedrich (nee Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom); the Prinz von Hessen winery; Gut Panker; and Schloss Wolfsgarten (which Moritz inherited from Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine).
Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse died in Frankfurt on May 23, 2013. Following his funeral at St. John’s Church in Kronberg, he was buried in the family cemetery on the grounds of the former Schloss Friedrichshof.
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