Prince Albert Wilhelm Heinrich of Prussia, known as Prince Heinrich (August 14, 1862 in Berlin – April 20, 1929 in Hemmelmark, Schleswig-Holstein) was a younger brother of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. A career naval officer, he held various commands in the Imperial German Navy and eventually rose to the rank of Grand Admiral. The prince is not to be confused with the Prince Heinrich of Prussia who was the brother of King Friedrich II ("the Great").
Family
Prince Heinrich of Prussia was the third of eight children born to Crown Prince Friedrich III (later Emperor Friedrich III), and Victoria, Princess Royal of Great Britain, a daughter of the British Queen Victoria. Heinrich was three years younger than his older brother, the future Emperor Wilhelm II (born January 27, 1859).
On May 24, 1888, Heinrich married Princess Irene Luise Maria Anna of Hesse and the Rhine. The marriage produced three children:
- Waldemar of Prussia (March 20, 1889 - May 2, 1945)
- Sigismund of Prussia (November 27, 1896 - November 14, 1978)
- Heinrich Viktor Ludwig Friedrich of Prussia (January 9, 1900; February 26, 1904)
Naval career
After attending the gymnasium in Kassel, which he left in the middle grades in 1877, the 15-year-old Heinrich entered the Imperial Navy and was trained as an officer. His naval education included a two-year voyage around the world (1878 to 1880), the naval officer examination [Seeoffizierhauptprüfung] on October 1, 1880, and later (1884 to 1886) attendance at the German naval academy. Students were supposed to graduate during the winter months, following the period of actual duty.
Early commands
As an imperial prince, Heinrich quickly achieved command. In 1887, he commanded a torpedo boat (in 1887) and simultaneously the First Torpedo Boat Division; in 1888 the imperial yacht Hohenzollern; from 1889-1890 the second-class cruiser Irene, that armored coastal defense ship Beowulf, and the capital ship Sachsen und Wörth.
Squadron commands
From 1897 Prince Heinrich commanded several naval task forces; these included, at first, an improvised squadron that took part with the East Asia Squadron in supressing the unrest in the Chinese region of Kiautschou and then took the port of Tsingtao into the possession of the German Empire (1897). The prince’s success was more of the diplomatic than the military variety. Thus he became the first European potentate ever to be received at the Chinese imperial court. In 1899 he became officially the commander of the East Asia Squadron, later of a capital-ship squadron and in 1903 commander of the Baltic Sea naval station. From 1906 to 1909, Heinrich was commander of the High Seas Fleet. In 1909, he was promoted to Grand Admiral.
World War I
At the beginning of World War I, Prince Heinrich was named Commander-in-Chief of the Baltic Fleet. Athough the means provided him were far inferior to Russia’s Baltic Fleet, he succeeded in until the 1917 Revolution in putting Russia’s naval forces far on the defensive, and hindered them from making attacks on the German coast. After the end of hostilities with Russia, his mission was ended, and Prince Heinrich simply left active duty. With the war’s end and the dissolution of the monarchy in Germany, Prince Heinrich left the Navy.
Personality and private life
Heinrich had little in common with his brother, the German Emperor. He lacked, for example, Wilhelm’s erratic nature and egotism. The prince was truly popular in Northern Germany, and on account of his humble and open manner was beloved by his troops. On foreign travels he was a good diplomat, who, unlike his brother, was able to strike the right tone. Thus, on his 1912 trip to the United States, Heinrich succeeded in winning the the sympathy of critical American press as well as the hearts of more than just the numerous German-American population.
As a naval officer, he had a profession that completely satisfied him and that he loved. He was through and through a pragmatist. He received one of the first pilot’s licenses in Germany, and was judged a spirited and excellent seaman. He was dedicated to modern technology and was able to understand quickly the practical value of technical innovations. He was an early proponent, for example, of introducing submarines and airplanes. In the Baltic Sea, he had a steamship converted into an aircraft carrier, in order to attack Russia with naval air forces.
Heinrich respected his brother, but this attitude was not returned in the same mesasure. Certainly Wilhelm was intellectually superior. He kept his younger brother far from politics, although Heinrich served as his representative as long as the Crown Prince was still in his minority. Heinrich complied with this, for he did not interest himself in either politics or grand strategy. He did not recognize what political effect the German naval build-up would entail, and also would not have been in the position to move his brother toward a different policy.
After the Revolution, Heinrich lived with his family in Hemmelmark near Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein. He continued with motor sports and sailing and even in old age was a very successful participant in regettas. He supposedly invented a windshield wiper and, according to other sources, the car-horn. In his honor, the Prince Heinrich Regetta [Prinz-Heinrich-Fahrt] was established. He popularized the headgear known as the "Prince Heinrich cap" [Prinz-Heinrich-Mütze] -- an item of apparel still known, and especially beloved among older sailors.
In 1899, he received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Engineering honoris causa) from the Technical University of Berlin. Also in foreign countries he received numerous honors of that sort, with the last being an honorary doctorate in 1912 from Harvard University.
On April 20, 1929, Prince Heinrich died, as his father had done, of throat cancer.
References
Harald Eschenburg. Prinz Heinrich von Preußen - Der Großadmiral im Schatten des Kaisers. Heide, 1989, ISBN 3-8042-0456-2. [Translation of title: Prince Heinrich of Prussia - The Grand Admiral in the Shadow of the Emperor.]
External links
Last updated: 08-21-2005 14:55:14
