Ernst Heinrich von Sachsen

Ernst Heinrich of Saxony was born in Dresden on December 9, 1896, and died in Neckarhausen on June 14, 1971. He was the youngest of the sons of the last King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III, and his wife, Luise of Austria-Tuscany. He spent his childhood under his father’s care in Dresden, Pillnitz, and Moritzburg. The family was deeply affected by the separation of his parents: Luise left them permanently in 1902, when Ernst Heinrich was only six years old. According to his family’s own recollections, the loss weighed heavily on his father and the children, and Ernst Heinrich may have suffered from it most severely. When the First World War broke out, Ernst Heinrich was a first lieutenant in the Royal Saxon Grenadier Regiment No. 100. In September, he became an orderly officer with the General Command of the XIX (2nd Royal Saxon) Army Corps, which was deployed in Reims and Lille. During a four-month leave in 1916, he completed his Abitur. He then took part in the Battle of the Somme as a staff officer with the 24th Reserve Division. On August 30, 1916, he received the Military Order of Saint Henry for his service. In the spring of 1917, he assumed command of the 9th Company of Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 104 in eastern Galicia. After spending two months in hospital, he commanded the 9th Battery of Artillery Regiment No. 115 near Ypres. At the beginning of May 1918, he became commander of the 1st Squadron of the Guard Cavalry Regiment at Stary Bykhov on the Dnieper. In August, he took command of Saxon troops in Dorpat, Reval, and Finland. In November and December 1918, he organized the return of Saxon units to Germany. After the war, Ernst Heinrich spent 1919 and 1920 acquiring practical knowledge of managing an estate in Silesia. During the Kapp Putsch in March 1920, he acted as a liaison between the putschists in Berlin and the Reichswehr in Breslau. After the attempted coup failed, he moved to Munich and joined the circle surrounding the former Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. On April 12, 1921, Ernst Heinrich married Princess Sophie of Luxembourg, the younger sister of the future Grand Duchess Charlotte and Rupprecht’s sister-in-law. The marriage was considered happy. The couple had three sons: Albert Friedrich August Johann Gregor Dedo, Georg Timo Michael Nikolaus Maria, and Rupprecht Hubertus Gero Maria. Sophie died of pneumonia in Munich on May 24, 1941. Ernst Heinrich did not participate in Hitler’s attempted coup of November 8 and 9, 1923. He consistently rejected National Socialist ideology and kept his distance from Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff. At his father’s request, he took over the leadership of the “House of Wettin–Albertine Line” foundation in 1923. He was also charged with negotiating with the Free State of Saxony over the future use of the Wettin family’s castles and their art collections. On June 25, 1925, an agreement was concluded regulating relations between the Free State and the former ruling family. Ernst Heinrich had a passionate interest in art and made several trips to Egypt with his wife and children. In 1928 and 1929, Gustav Stresemann approached him in the hope of persuading him to stand as a candidate for the office of Reich President. Ernst Heinrich considered the plan hopeless and declined. After the National Socialists came to power on January 30, 1933, Ernst Heinrich remained an opponent of the regime. At first, however, he misjudged the political situation. He believed Hitler could be stopped by a conservative opposition and joined the Stahlhelm in the spring of 1933, hoping to escape Nazi influence. During the so-called Night of the Long Knives, he was arrested on July 1, 1934, and held for five days in Hohnstein concentration camp. After his release, he withdrew to Moritzburg Castle. As a passionate hunter, he nevertheless remained in contact with leading National Socialists, including Hermann Göring, who, as Reich Master of the Hunt, was interested in the Wettin forests, and Martin Mutschmann, the Nazi Gauleiter and Reich governor of Saxony. In 1938, Ernst Heinrich received King Carol II of Romania at Moritzburg. The following year, he held extensive political discussions with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, the former mayor of Leipzig and a later participant in the German resistance. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Ernst Heinrich was assigned to Group IV of the Abwehr in Dresden. In 1943, he publicly expressed doubts that the death of his brother Georg of Saxony had been an accident. The Gestapo subsequently arrested and interrogated him. There were no further personal consequences, since the National Socialists still hesitated to openly persecute a member of a former royal house. Ernst Heinrich admired the artist Käthe Kollwitz. After she lost her home during the bombing of Berlin in 1943, he offered her accommodation in Moritzburg. Kollwitz subsequently lived and worked at the nearby Rudenhof, where she died in April 1945. After Dresden was destroyed by air raids in February 1945, Ernst Heinrich fled to Sigmaringen in March to escape the advance of the Red Army. Before leaving, he and his sons buried much of the family’s valuable property in 40 crates in the Königswalde forest. Most of the crates were discovered by the Red Army and taken to the Soviet Union, but three treasure chests were recovered in 1995. On June 28, 1947, Ernst Heinrich married the actress Virginia Dulon in Paris. After the marriage, she styled herself Princess Virginia of Saxony. The marriage remained childless. That same year, the couple acquired the Coolamber estate near Lismacaffrey in County Westmeath, Ireland. Ernst Heinrich moved there with his second wife and the sons from his first marriage. After initial difficulties, he became a successful farmer and developed a deep appreciation for his new home and its culture. He never returned to his native Saxony after 1945. He died in Neckarhausen in 1971 while visiting Germany.