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Otto, 3rd Prince of Salm-Horstmar

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Otto II
Prince of Salm-Horstmar
Reign1892–1941
PredecessorOtto I
SuccessorPhilipp Franz
Born(1867-09-23)23 September 1867
Varlar Castle, Rosendahl, Kingdom of Prussia
Died2 March 1941(1941-03-02) (aged 73)
Varlar Castle, Rosendahl, Nazi Germany
Spouse
Countess Rosa zu Solms-Baruth
​
​
(m. 1903; died 1941)​
Names
Otto Adalbert Friedrich August Gustav Alexander zu Salm-Horstmar
HouseSalm-Horstmar
FatherOtto, 2nd Prince of Salm-Horstmar
MotherCountess Emilie zu Lippe-Biesterfeld

Otto Adalbert Friedrich August Gustav Alexander, Fürst[Notes 1] zu Salm-Horstmar (23 September 1867 – 2 March 1941) was a German nobleman, anti-Semite and right-wing politician.

Early life

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Varlar Castle

Otto was born on 23 September 1867 at Varlar Castle (Schloss Varlar) in Rosendahl.[a] He was the son of Otto, 2nd Prince of Salm-Horstmar (1833–1892), and Countess Emilie zu Lippe-Biesterfeld (1841–1892).[1]

His paternal grandparents were Countess Elisabeth Anna Caroline Julie Amalie zu Solms-Rödelheim-Assenheim, and Rhinegrave Friedrich of Salm-Grumbach, who was created Prince of Salm-Horstmar in 1816. His paternal uncles were Prince Karl and Prince Eduard of Salm-Horstmar. His maternal grandparents were Julius, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld and Countess Adelheid of Castell-Castell (a granddaughter of Karl Ludwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg). His uncle, Ernest, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld, married Countess Karoline von Wartensleben.[2]

After graduating from school, he studied law in Lausanne, Geneva, and Berlin. Between 1889 and 1892, he was an officer and also attended the Agricultural University of Berlin.[1]

Career

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Kaiser Wilhelm II speaking to the Prince of Salm-Horstmar, 1914

Upon the death of his father in 1892, Salm-Horstmar then took over the family estates.[b] He was also involved in agricultural interest groups, including as chairman of the German Landowners' Association. From 1915 until his death, he was president of the Westphalian Equestrian Club. Salm-Horstmar also campaigned for the expansion of the Münster Academy (Akademie Münster) into a full university, for which he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Westphalia in 1902. In addition, the Historical Commission for Westphalia [de] (founded by Alfred, 7th Prince of Salm-Salm) accepted him as a full member in 1904.[1]

As a hereditary member, Salm-Horstmar belonged to the Prussian House of Lords. He was also a member of the Westphalian Provincial Parliament from 1911 to 1919. Between 1916 and 1919, he served as its chairman.[1]

Political career

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Having previously served as first vice president, Salm-Horstmar was chairman of the German Navy League (German: Deutscher Flottenverein) between 1902 and 1908, which advocated the development of a strong navy.[4] He was an active organizer of radical right-wing agitation. At the end of World War I, he became a member of the German Fatherland Party. He viewed the war as a conflict between a "Jewish-democratic" and a "German-aristocratic" worldview.[5][6]

During the Weimar Republic, he was a leading member of the Pan-German League and an opponent of the Republic. In 1920, he was co-responsible for the first German translation of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."[7] In 1931, he unsuccessfully called on German President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint a new government without Social Democrats and without Chancellor Heinrich Brüning. This new right-wing government was to be based on the Harzburg Front.[1]

Personal life

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In 1903, Prince Otto II married Countess Rosa Marie Bertha Louise zu Solms-Baruth (1884–1945), a daughter of Friedrich II von Solms-Baruth, 2nd Prince of Solms-Baruth and Countess Ida Louise von Hochberg-Fürstenstein. With her, he had the following eight children:

The Prince of Salm-Horstmar died at Varlar Castle on 2 March 1941. His widow died on 12 June 1945.[9]

Descendants

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Through his daughter Friederike Juliane, he was a grandfather of Prince Ludwig-Ferdinand zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburgh, father of Princess Anna of Bavaria,[10][11] Prince August Fredrik zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg,[12][13] and Princess Theodora Sayn-Wittgenstein.[14][15][16]

References

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Notes

  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Prinz was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated as Prince. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von, zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine form is Prinzessin.
  1. ^ Today, Schloss Varlar is in the Coesfeld district in the northwestern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
  2. ^ The Principality of Salm-Horstmar was a short-lived Napoleonic County in far northern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located around Horstmar, to the northeast of Münster. It was created in 1803 for Wild- and Rhinegrave Friedrich of Salm-Grumbach, following the loss of Grumbach and other territories west of the Rhine to France. The county was mediatised to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1813 and the Wild- and Rhinegrave was awarded a princely title within the Kingdom of Prussia three years later, on 22 November 1816 by Frederick William III of Prussia.[3]
  3. ^ From Jantsch's marriage to Rudolf August Oetker, she was the mother of four, including Richard Oetker.[8]
  4. ^ Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1910–1943) had two older brothers, Gustav Albrecht who was also killed in 1944, and Christian Heinrich who died in 1983. Gustav's son Richard was married to Princess Benedikte of Denmark, sister of Queen Margrethe II and of former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e Vierhaus, Rudolf (2005). Deutsche biographische Enzyklopädie: (DBE) (in German). Walter de Gruyter. p. 681. ISBN 978-3-598-25038-5. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  2. ^ Europäische Stammtafeln, Band I, Frank Baron Freytag von Loringhoven, 1975, Isenburg, W. K. Prinz von, Reference: p. 148.
  3. ^ "Princes of the Holy Roman Empire".
  4. ^ Diziol, Sebastian (2015). Deutsche, werdet Mitglieder des Vaterlandes!. Kiel: Solivagus Praeteritum. ISBN 978-39817079-0-8.
  5. ^ Heinz Gollwitzer: Die Standesherren. Die politische und gesellschaftliche Stellung der Mediatisierten 1815–1918. Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Sozialgeschichte. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen (1964).
  6. ^ C. J. Schwabe: Freimaurerei und Presse im Weltkriege In: Die Bauhuette. Organ für die Gesammt-Interessen der Freimaurerei, October 1918, Vol. 62, No. 42, p. 334.
  7. ^ Malinowski, Stephan (2009). Vom König zum Führer: Deutscher Adel und Nationalsozialismus (From King to Leader: Social Decline and Political Radicalization in the German Nobility between the Empire and the Nazi State) (in German). Akademie Verlag. p. 182. ISBN 978-3-05-004070-7. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Traueranzeige Susanne Prinzessin zu Salm-Horstmar". rp-online.de. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  9. ^ "Salm-Horstmar, Otto Fürst zu, Dr". www.historische-kommission.lwl.org (in German). Historischen Kommission für Westfalen. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  10. ^ "Anna von Bayern". Random House. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  11. ^ "Sie erwarten ihr viertes Kind". GALA (in German). 28 May 2019.
  12. ^ "August Wittgenstein - Schauspieler". www.schauspielervideos.de.
  13. ^ Overkott, Jürgen (October 7, 2013). "Wenn ein Wittgensteiner in die Wüste geschickt wird". www.derwesten.de.
  14. ^ "German Princess Theodora Sayn-Wittgenstein marries". Express Digest. 2018-07-22. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  15. ^ "Princess Theodora Sayn-Wittgenstein of Germany weds in intimate ceremony". New Idea. [dead link]
  16. ^ "German princess says I do in royal wedding". 9Honey. 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
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Otto II, 3rd Prince of Salm-Horstmar
Cadet branch of the House of Salm
Born: 23 September 1867 Died: 2 March 1941
German nobility
Preceded by Prince of Salm-Horstmar
1892–1941 		Succeeded by
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