Wednesday, July 9, 2008

German Prince graduates from law school

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, eldest son of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his second wife, Baroness Ehrengard von Reden, recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's law school. He studied law in Germany, and was awarded a full scholarship to further his legal education in Philadelphia.

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was born in 1979 in Berlin. He has a younger sister, Viktoria Luise, and a younger brother, Joachim, who is at university in the UK. He also has an older half-brother, Philip, who is a Lutheran pastor in Germany.

The new grad's father, Friedrich Wilhelm, is the eldest son of the late Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was the head of the Royal House of Prussia. In 1967, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm ceased to be a dynast because his marriage to a German commoner was not approved by his father. This marriage ended in divorce, and as did his second marriage.
The current head of the house of Prussia is Prince Georg Friedrich, who is the the new lawyer's first cousin. After Prince Louis Ferdinand's death in 1994, the "throne" passed to his grandson, by passing Friedrich Wilhelm and his brother, Michael, both of whom made unapproved marriages. Georg Friedrich is the son of Louis Ferdinand's third son, Louis Ferdinand, whose marriage to Countess Donata zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, was approved.