Speaking of the 1943 last will and testament of the late Prince Gustav Albrecht, I am going to copy over some information I recently posted to another thread:
His will did not contain the word "Aryan".
The requirements he specified in his testament were not only applicable to a future grandson. They applied to
all his living and future testamentary heirs: sons, grandsons, nephews, daughters, etc.
The contents of Prince Gustav Albrecht's last will of 1943 were recorded in the 2019 and 2020 judgments in the court dispute over the succession to his estate. The passage in his will specifying the conditions required of male heirs ran as follows:
Die vorstehend berufenen Personen sollen nur Nacherben werden und bleiben, wenn sie im Besitz der Bürgerl. Ehrenrechte und evangelischen Glaubens sind und aus einer Ehe stammen, und wenn sie eine Ehe eingehen bzw. in einer Ehe leben, mit einer Frau, die adlig geboren ist und hinsichtlich ihrer Abstammung die gegenwärtigen Aufnahmebedingungen für die Mitgliedschaft bei der Deutschen Adelsgenossenschaft erfüllen kann. Diese für die Nacherben festgelegten Bedingungen gelten auch für den Vorerben, bedeuten also eine Einschränkung der für den Vorerben im Absatz 1 aufgeführten Bestimmungen.
Translation:
The persons appointed [as heirs] above shall be and remain reversionary heirs only if they enjoy the rights of citizenship and are of the Protestant faith
and are issue of a marriage, and if they enter into a marriage or are living in a marriage, with a woman who is noble-born and, with regard to her ancestry, satisfies the current admission requirements for membership in the German Nobility Society. These conditions stipulated for the reversionary heirs apply also to the provisional heirs.
https://openjur.de/u/2340698.html
https://viewer.content-select.com/p...5074efaf5cc104c2b4cb6&frontend=1&language=deu
Rules excluding non-noble spouses and children from inheriting family lands proliferated throughout Germany from the 15th century onward - centuries before the Nazis existed.
Another characteristic of Germany, not unrelated (in my opinion) to the previous one, was a growing obsession from the 15th c. with the concept of equality in marriages. Of course, most European monarchies show the same trend of marrying their members only within the most elevated class, which by the 16th c. means royalty of other countries. [...] What is peculiar in Germany is that dynasties tried to establish the principle that
marriages that were contracted outside of this group were less valid; and, in particular, that the offspring's claims were automatically curtailed, as a matter of law.
https://www.heraldica.org/topics/royalty/g_morganat.htm
There is ambiguity in the phrase "current admission requirements" ("gegenwärtigen Aufnahmebedingungen") written by Prince Gustav Albrecht in his will. It could be interpreted to mean "current admission requirements at the time of the writing of the will (i.e., 1943)", but it could also be interpreted to mean "current admission requirements at the time of the marriage".
TRF poster Kataryn, who is a native German speaker and well informed about German law, believes from the context that Gustav Albrecht probably meant "current at the time of the marriage".
https://www.theroyalforums.com/foru...-3-june-2022-present-49425-3.html#post2500827
I think "current at the time of the marriage" is a likely interpretation because, as Kataryn also pointed out in this thread, the late Gustav Albrecht was farsighted enough to include a clause in his will stating that a three-person committee could repeal or suspend any of the stipulations in the will, if they had become outdated:
Sollte jedoch einer dieser Gesichtspunkte später den derzeitigen Verhältnissen tatsächlich widersprechen (z.B. die Forderung evangelischen Glaubens ist dadurch überholt, daß inzwischen eine christliche deutsche Reichskirche gebildet ist, nicht jedoch, wenn der Betreffende dem Katholizismus oder der 'Gottgläubigkeit' zuneigt, wenn die evang. Kirche nach wie vor besteht), so hat ein Gremium, bestehend aus dem Chef der ... Herrschaft, dem präsumtiven nächsten Nacherben in den hiesigen Besitz und dem Vorsitzenden der Vereinigung Deutscher Stammesherren zusammenzutreten und einstimmig die Aufhebung bzw. vorübergehende Suspendierung dieser Einzelbestimmung zu beschließen.
Translation:
However, should one of these principles subsequently come into real conflict with the current circumstances (for example, the demand to belong to the Protestant faith is rendered obsolete by the establishment of a Christian German national church in the meantime, but not if the person in question is inclined towards Catholicism or "faith in God" when the Protestant church still exists), then it is incumbent upon a committee, consisting of the head of the [redacted] lordship, the presumptive next reversionary heir to this property and the president of the Union of German Family Lords, to convene and unanimously decide on the repeal or temporary suspension of this individual provision.
So while he was a self-proclaimed traditionalist, it was obviously important to Gustav Albrecht that his requirements could be adapted to future changes in German society.
The Deutsche Adelsgenossenschaft (which was founded in 1874) still exists, although it was reestablished under a new name in 1949.
https://www.adel-in-deutschland.de/
Given that Gustav's nephew (who he seems to be very close to – AFAIK he currently lives with him at Berleburg) goes by Richard, I don't think it's particularly surprising that he opted for a different name for his son.
).
