Princely House of Waldeck and Pyrmont

[Marengo]

This thread is about the Princely House of Waldeck-Pyrmont:

Arms of the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont
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[Marengo]

Dutch magazine ' Royalty' has 5-page interview with 71 y/o fuerst Wittekind of Waldeck-Pyrmont. The magazine interviewed the prince since this year it is celebrated in Arolsen that Queen Emma of the Netherlands was born there 150 years ago.

Prince Wittekind has Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler as a godfather, since his father, prince Josias was very pro-nazi. Queen Wilhelmina broke of all contacts with the Waldeck-Pyrmont family due to that but after Josias died relations improved. Now the Dutch royals and Prince Wittekind see each other regulary at weddings and the Orange-Nassau's sometimes join hunting parties in Arolsen.

The prince also tells about various gifts from Waldeck to Queen Emma that were returned by Queen Wilhelmina to her Waldeck relatives in 1934, when Queen Emma died. He also points out that he is equally close related to the house of Orange in two ways, the first line obviously through the parents of Queen Emma but the second line comes from his mother, princess Altburga, who is the daughter of GD Elisabeth of Oldenburg, nee Dss of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (a sister of Prince Hendrik, Queen Wilhelmina's husband).

The fuerst also told an anecdote on how Queen Emma met king Willem III (who was 41 years her senior). According to him there were 3 sisters in a room looking outside. No. said she was already engaged, no 2. said that the king was too old, upon which Queen Emma replied ' but we can not let that poor man go home emty-handed' .

The article showed a lot of pictures of Schloss Arolsen and the gardens, which looked very pretty.

[Empress]

Why would someone name their child "White Child"? Is that some reference to the White Knight perhaps?

[HMTLove23]

are there any photos of the furst wittekind and furstin cecilie? any photos and info of the future furst carl-anton, who is 17? or his brothers josias and johannes?

[Marengo]

Originally Posted by Empress

Why would someone name their child "White Child"? Is that some reference to the White Knight perhaps?

I remember having read that he was named after some warrior of medieval times, so I searched and found this:

Blessed Widukind or Wittekind (c. 730–808) was a Saxon leader, Duke of Saxony (corresponding to modern-day Westphalia) and the chief antagonist of Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. He married Geva of Westfold (c. 770-800), daughter of the Danish king Goimo I and sister of the Danish kings Ragnar and Siegfried.
Widukind was the moving spirit in the struggles of the Saxons for their independence and continuation of their traditional faith. Frankish accounts of the Saxon Wars give only scant outlines of his character. After Charlemagne subdued the Saxons in 777, Widukind found refuge with his wife's relatives in Denmark. When Charlemagne went to Spain in 778, Widukind returned and revived the rebellion, and the Saxons raided Frankish regions. Several more times Widukind had to flee, and eventually Charlemagne subdued the Saxons and inflicted terrible punishment at the Bloody Verdict of Verden where 4,500 tribal leaders were allegedly beheaded (modern research questions these reports; see the article about the Verden trial for details).
The bitter struggles involved Wends and Frisians as well and continued until Charlemagne succeeded in persuading Widukind to accept Christianity. Widukind was baptized in 785 along with many of his people at Attigny. The Pope ordered a general feast of thanksgiving. Widukind took no part in further Saxon wars. He soon became one of the heroes of legend and eventually appeared as a saintly figure (becoming "Blessed Widukind") and the builder of many churches. He is believed to have been buried at Enger near Herford around 808. However, the monumental tomb in the church of Enger is not from the 9th century, and so it is doubtful if the corpse inside is actually that of Widukind. This once bitter foe of Charlemagne, thus became his friend and godson. His feast day is commemorated on January 7.
According to myth Widukind rode a black horse before his baptism and a white horse afterwards. The black horse is depicted in the coat of arms of the district of Herford, while his white horse is depicted on the flags of the North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony states of Germany.
Widukind is also a Dutch fraternity located in Nijmegen which was founded in 1945

From this wikipedia site.

The name is not frequently used in Germany AKAIK, so I suppose the Germanic sympathies of fürst Josias played a part while picking the name. I believe fuerst Josias was a SS-Obengruppenführer and he escorted the crownprincess of Bavaria (nee Pss Antonia of Luxembourg) to a concentrationcamp.

[Marengo]

Originally Posted by HMTLove23

are there any photos of the furst wittekind and furstin cecilie? any photos and info of the future furst carl-anton, who is 17? or his brothers josias and johannes?

Prince Wittekind can be seen on the left in this picture. I can't find anything else sadly.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by HMTLove23

are there any photos of the furst wittekind and furstin cecilie? any photos and info of the future furst carl-anton, who is 17? or his brothers josias and johannes?

Here are a few photos of Fürst Wittekind an d Fürstin Cecilia

http://www.seegerpress-online.de/top...ER00119965.jpg
http://www.seegerpress-online.de/top...ER00001521.jpg
http://www.seegerpress-online.de/top...ER00101399.jpg

and with Landgrave Moritz of Hesse

http://www.seegerpress-online.de/top...ER00101770.jpg

[Marengo]

Fürst Wittikind and Fürstin Cecilia of Waldeck-Pyrmont received Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands today, at Schloss Arolsen in Bad Arolsen. The queen was there to open an exhibition to commemorate the 150th birthday of Queen Emma of The Netherlands, née Princess of Waldeck-Pyrmont.

Link provided by Paty at the Current Events thread of Queen Beatrix, look here (Belga).

[Marengo]

A clip of the visit, with nice footage of Schloss Arolsen and in the end a short interview with Fürstin Cecilia. She refers to her Austrian background shortly and explains things about the lunch.

Videos: Bad Arolsen: Besuch von Königin Beatrix - HNA Online

Meanwhile the Fürst seems to be walking away with the luncheon... here .

[Marengo]

An article an interview about/with Fuerst Wittikind in the Dutch newspaper 'Reformatorisch Dagblad' of July 4th 2008. Read the article in Dutch here. Note that the site is not available on Sunday.

[Marengo]

prince Alexander of Waldeck-Pyrmont and his wife Tanja Rippetoe received a 2nd daughter: Philippa. This was said on NetMoms.de, a website co-founded by Tanja.

The couple already has a daughter named Charlotte.

SOurce: www.monarchen.nl, article in Dutch here.