Born in 1869, raised in the Munich Residenz to rule and defend the second largest state in the German Empire (Bavaria), Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand von Wittlesbach, rose to high rank in the Bavarian Army due as much to skill as to his last name, married a Bavarian princess (also his cousin), and certainly expected to inherit the throne occupied by members of the Wittlesbach family for nearly 800 years. Through no fault of his own, Crown Prince Rupprecht was only three years too late.
While Field Marshal Crown Prince Rupprecht led the German Sixth Army Group, later Army Group Rupprecht, to crushing victories (Cambrai, Saarburg) and highly competent withdrawals, revolutions that toppled the dynasties of Germany and all constituent states broke out in November, 1918 His father, King Ludwig III and Queen Adelaide were driven out of the Munich Residenz, with the 75 year old monarch driving his own limousine. The King died three years later. Although Rupprecht was recognized by a large percentage of Bavarians as still Crown Prince or even King, the monarchy was abolished in 1919.
There was always a centuries-old fallback position for Rupprecht, albeit equally shaky. Through his mother, Queen Adelaide, he was the legitimate Jacobite (Stuart) claimant to the English throne. Referred to by the few remaining Jacobites as King Rupert I, he was also twice a Scots duke.
Closer to the Throne:
At birth, Prince Rupprecht had the questionable honor of having his uncle King Ludwig II as his godfather. This was "Mad Ludwig," builder of Neushwanstein Castle, and a suicide in 1886 . Both Ludwig and his brother, Prince Otto, were judged too insane to rule, which left Rupprecht's grandfather as Regent of Bavaria. Prince Rupprecht was only 17 when his infamous uncle drowned himself and his doctor in a Bavarian lake.
He joined the Bavarian Army as member of the prestigious Infanterie-Leibregement. Unlike many royals of the period, Rupprecht also studied law at the universities of Berlin and Munich. His prestige in both the Bavarian and Imperial German armies continued to grow once it became obvious that he understood much of military science almost intuitively, and regularly trounced the "enemy" during maneuvers.
In 1900, Rupprecht married a cousin, Princess Marie Gabrielle in Bayern (of a cadet branch of the family). Intermarriage between members of the Wittlesbach family was common and well known, although it frequently produced hopelessly insane offspring such as King Ludwig II and Prince Otto. Luckily, Rupprecht and Marie Gabrielle were the parents of four perfectly fine children, beginning with Prince Luitpold in 1905.
Still only third in line to the Bavarian throne, Lieutenant General Prince Rupprecht became increasingly involved in both Royal and Imperial armies. He concurrently gained the respect and cooperation of other senior German officers, highly useful in only a few more years. Princess Marie Gabrielle quite unexpectedly died in 1912, aged only 31. This loss drove the widower deeper into the day-to-day of both the army and of Bavarian royal politics.
Rupprecht's grandfather Prinzregent Luitpold died in 1912, boosting his father into that august position. By 1913, a unanimous vote of the Bavarian upper house made Ludwig King Ludwig III, with Rupprecht finally becoming Bavarian Crown Prince. The regency had existed for 25 years. Although hopelessly insane, Otto von Wittlesbach automatically became King on the death of Ludwig II, only dying in 1916. Thus the need for a vote of the upper house of parliament to raise Ludwig III to the royal throne.
The Great War, a Great Commander, and a Great Analyst of Events
As the Great War began, the Crown Prince was quickly seen to be the only one of the royal commanders worthy of his post. At Cambrai, "at the Somme, Arras, Lille, and Ypres" his Sixth Army rolled back first French, then British armies. Rupprecht only called for well ordered withdrawals if no other chance existed, or, unlike most senior staff, if he realized that more resistance would merely kill more of his own men before a sure defeat. The fact that he was related to and respected by the ruling families of Great Britain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium also gave the Crown Prince a respect across the lines that was rarely accorded to other German generals.
"Throughout 1917 and 1918 the Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht was responsible for defending the Hindenburg Line.” As victorious or protective of his army group as he was, Field Marshal Crown Prince Rupprecht was one of the first senior commanders in the German Army to realize the need for early peace negotiations. ” He wrote … to his father King Ludwig III … and to the German Chancellor … but to no avail.”
To Prince Max von Baden, the Kaiser's cousin and soon to be Chancellor, the Crown Prince noted that "Our military situation has deteriorated so rapidly that I no longer believe we can hold out over the winter .... The Americans are multiplying in a way we never dreamed of … there are already thirty-one American divisions in France."
Unfortunately, Rupprecht was one of the very few members of German royalty and of the High Command - especially those close to Kaiser Wilhelm II - who were seeing things rationally as November 11, 1918 closed in. In fact, the German military situation described in his letters deteriorated even more quickly than the Crown Prince expected.
End of the Old Order:
Within three months of his letter to Prince Max, both Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire would surrender to the Entente-Cordiale. The Kaiser would slip across the Dutch border to a comfortable exile, while Kaiser Karl I and his family retreated to Switzerland and Portugal.
In Germany itself, the Hohenzollern dynasty would be swept from its Imperial and Royal thrones, together with the Wittlesbachs of Bavaria, and every other royal or grand ducal clan in the country. Returning to Bavaria after the establishment of a Communist government by Chancellor Kurt Eisner, the Crown Prince was permitted to live in Schloss Berchestgaden, still private property of the family.
Just how Rupprecht and his family and dynasty made their ways through the Weimar Republic, the National Socialist reign of terror, World War II and a post-war Germany gutted and cut in half - deserves a story all to itself. From an all-powerful heir to the throne, to a semi-private citizen and leader of a large clan, is quite a fall. Staying alive, wealthy and sane during rapidly changing times like those was another heroic, quasi-Wagnerian tale for Rupprecht von Whittlesbach.
Additional Sources:
The First World War: Battles in the Vosges and Lorraine (20 to 22 August 1914), Deutsches Historiches Museum, Berlin-Mitte, 2010
Berger, Manfred, Church Biographical-Bibliographical Lexicon Volume XXII, Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Verlag Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen Germany, 2002
McFerran, Noel S, Robert I and IV and A Jacobite Gazetteer, The Jacobite Heritage, 2010
Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria (1869-1955) in The Royal Forums, SocialKnowledge LLC, 2011
This Day in History – August 13, 1918 in History.com, A&E Television Networks LLC, 2011
Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria in iReference.ca: Free Online Reference Site and Encyclopedia, Toronto, Canada, 2008-2011
Larry Slater - I have been writing for publication for 35 years -literary magazines, and articles on historic homes, nonprofit boards and antiques In ...
