Kiel Week & A Murder in Sarajevo:
Wilhelm developed his own regatta. Kieler Woche was a week of sailing yacht races, dinners, balls, and a review of the Kaiserliches Kriegsmarine. Prince Henry showed visiting royals through his flagship, Deutschland, and other battleships. Prinz Heinrich , quite frankly, was Germany's public face of the Imperial High Seas Fleet.
Kieler Woche 1914 was extremely well covered by James Gerard, last American Ambassador to the Imperial German Court. "In June, 1914, we went to Kiel as guests of Allison Armour of Chicago, on his yacht, the Utowana. ... I arrived on the twenty-seventh of June, and that night went with Armour to dine with the Emperor on board the Emperor's yacht, Hohenzollern.”
Late afternoon next day "Prince Henry and his wife ... were to give an afternoon reception and garden party [at Schloss Kiel]; but on arriving at the gates we were told that the party would not take place. After going on board the Utowana ... the ... correspondent of the London Daily Mail, ranged up alongside in a small launch and informed us that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife had been assassinated at Sarajevo.".
At War & Revolution:
As "Grand Admiral. Commander-in-Chief of the German Baltic Fleet, he successfully bottled up a far superior Russian fleet, preventing Russian warships from attacking the German coast." The Imperial High Seas Fleet never engaged enemy forces as one navy against another. The Battle of Jutland pitted only part of the Kriegsmarine against the British Home Fleet. Serious use and damage did befall the Unterseeboot (U-boat) section of the navy.
Nevertheless, the initial spark in Germany's collapse was struck by sailors of the Kriegsmarine at Kiel, adding irony to chaos. Prince and Princess Henry were in the midst of it all. Wilhelm was at least at Imperial Army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, guarded by officers and elite units still nominally loyal to the Crown.
Farewell to the Hohenzollerns:
According to Australian newspaper, The Age, in November 1918, “The revolutionaries destroyed the railway between Kiel and Flensburg (Schleswig), and seized Sonderburg naval base. All the ships hoisted the red flag, and Prince Henry’s palace at Kiel was flying the red flag [emphases mine].”
Prince Heinrich quickly found difficulties on the road as well. “Prince Henry of Prussia ... and a party of naval officers were motoring in Schleswig when rebels fired upon the car, wounding the driver. Prince Henry thereupon acted as chauffeur, and the party escaped .....”
Other accounts indicate that "... during the trip he met ... five revolutionary sailors, who compelled him to stop. Two sailors [stood] ... on the platform of the Prince’s car ... but after they had gone 100 yards the Prince struck the sailors in the face, and they fell off the car. The three others immediately fired ... at Prince Henry’s car, which made off at great speed, and escaped.” [Emphasis mine]
Prince and Princess Henry reached Gut Hemmelmark safely. Surprisingly, no doubt even to the couple, they managed to stay in Schleswig-Holstein. Prince Heinrich soon learned of brother Wilhelm’s flight to the Netherlands
Additional Sources:
Gerard, James W, Lately United States Ambassador to the Imperial German Court, My Four Years in Germany, Chapter VI, At Kiel Just Before the War, George H. Doran Company, New York, 1917
DelCampe, Sebastiaan, General Manager, Delcampe International sprl, Prinz Heinrich mit dem Staab der Hochseeflotte, (antique postcard – “Prince Henry with the Staff of the High Seas Fleet”), and Kiel Yacht-Klub-Gebaude und Seebade-Anstalt, (1928 postcard – “Kiel Yacht Club Building and Sea Bathing”) Delcampe Luxembourg SÀRL, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 2011
Schlenzka, Otto, Commodore, Kiel Yacht Club Yesterday & Today, from Web site for the Kiel Yacht Club, ADDIX Internet Services GmbH, Stuttgart Germany, 2011]
Massie, Robert K, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great Wa r, Random House, New York, 1991
Commercial Research Image Archives, Jay Robert Nash Collection, Portrait Photograph of Prince Henry of Prussia, CRIA, LLC, 2011
Scheer, Reinhard, Admiral, Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War, The War Times Journal, Apple Valley, CA 2003
Inside the Age, from The Might is Right Theory, The Age Company Ltd, Victoria, Australia, (articles from November, 1918), 2011
German Navy at End of First World War: Mutiny and Revolution, Deutsches Marinemuseum Wilhelmshaven, Germany 2011
German Royalties in General Flight; Two Princesses Wounded by Bullets, in The New York Times, The New York Times Company, New York, November 11, 1918
Larry Slater - I have been writing for publication for 35 years -literary magazines, and articles on historic homes, nonprofit boards and antiques In ...
