Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse

Prince Philipp
Landgrave of Hesse
Head of the House of Hesse
Tenure28 May 1940 – 25 October 1980
PredecessorFrederick Charles
SuccessorMoritz
Born(1896-11-06)6 November 1896
Schloss Rumpenheim, Offenbach, Hesse, Germany
Died25 October 1980(1980-10-25) (aged 83)
Rome, Italy
SpousePrincess Mafalda of Savoy
IssuePrince Moritz
Prince Heinrich
Prince Otto
Princess Elisabeth
HouseHesse-Kassel
FatherPrince Frederick Charles of Hesse
MotherPrincess Margaret of Prussia

Philipp, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse (6 November 1896 – 25 October 1980) was head of the Electoral House of Hesse from 1940 to 1980.

Philipp joined the Nazi Party in 1930, and, when they gained power with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, he became Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Hesse-Nassau. However, he later began to fall out of favour with Hitler in the spring of 1943 after delivering an honest assessment of the military situation in Italy.[1] He was arrested in September 1943 on the day Italy surrendered to the western Allies, dismissed in the following year, and was sent to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, then Dachau, where he remained until being transported to Tyrol by the SS, where he was liberated by Wehrmacht forces on 30 April 1945[2] and then arrested by U.S. forces on 4 May 1945, being interned until 1947.[3]

Philipp was a grandson of Frederick III, German Emperor, and a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, as well as the son-in-law of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.[4] His relative Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was named after him.[5]

  1. ^ "The Hesse Heist: The Fate of the Family von Hessen". 28 July 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference spectator was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference denisjudd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Kelley, Kitty (1998). The Royals. Wheeler Pub. p. 80.

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