Ernst Günther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2018

Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein: In November 1863, Prince Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg claimed the twin duchies as Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein after the death without a male heir of King Frederick VII of Denmark, who was also the Duke of Schleswig and the Duke of Holstein.  In 1864, following the Second Schleswig War, the Duchy of Holstein and the Duchy of Schleswig became occupied territories of the German Confederation and two years later, following the Austro-Prussian War, part of the new Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein. However, Prussia recognized the head of the House of Oldenburg as the *mediatized duke of these two duchies, with the rank and all the titles. The Duchy of Schleswig and the Duchy of Holstein are now the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

*mediatize – to annex (a principality) to another state, while allowing certain rights to its former sovereign

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Ernst Günther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein; Credit – Wikipedia

Ernst Günther was the mediatized Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from 1880 until his death in 1921. He was born in Dolzig, Kingdom of Prussia, now in Poland, on August 11, 1863, to Friedrich VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a daughter of Queen Victoria’s half-sister Feodora of Leiningen.

Ernst Günther had six siblings:

Upon his father’s death in January 1880, Ernst Günther inherited his father’s title. However, just like his father before him, the title was merely in pretense, as the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein had been annexed by Prussia following the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. He served as a General in the Cavalry and was a member of the Prussian House of Lords.

An affair in 1896 caused a great scandal within Germany. Ernst Günther had fallen in love with Baroness Johanna von Spitzemberg, the daughter of Hildegard von Spitzemberg, a noted hostess in Berlin, and a friend of the German Imperial Family. Ernst Günther and Johanna wanted to marry, but Kaiser Wilhelm and Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria – Ernst Günther’s sister – quickly made it clear that marriage would not be permitted.

Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. source: Wikipedia

Two years later, on August 2, 1898, in Coburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, now in the German state of Bavaria, Ernst Günther married Princess Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the daughter of Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Louise of Belgium. They had no children. However, in 1920, they adopted Princess Marie Luise and Prince Johann Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the children of Prince Albrecht of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and his first wife, Countess Ortrud of Ysenburg and Büdingen.

Ernst Günther died at Schloss Primkenau in Primkenau, Germany, now in Przemków, Poland, on February 22, 1921. He is buried in the Ducal Graveyard in Primkenau. As he had no legal heir, his titles were inherited by his cousin, Prince Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, son of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, and a grandson of Queen Victoria.

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