| Albert | |
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| Duke of Schleswig-Holstein | |
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| Predecessor | Ernest Gunther |
| Successor | Frederick Ferdinand |
| Full name | |
| Albert John Charles Frederick Arthur George | |
| House | House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg |
| Father | Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein |
| Mother | Princess Helena of the United Kingdom |
| Born | 26 February 1869 Frogmore House, Windsor |
| Died | 27 April 1931 (aged 62) Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation | Military |
Prince Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (Albert John Charles Frederick Arthur George; 26 February 1869 – 27 April 1931) was a grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. He was the second son of Victoria's daughter, Princess Helena, by her husband Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. He was the Head of the House of Oldenburg and also Duke of Augustenborg in Danish titulary and the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein between 1921 and 1931.
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Prince Albert grew up at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. Like his elder brother, Prince Christian Victor, Albert was destined for a military career. However, while Christian Victor's was in the British Army, Albert served with the Prussian Army, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Uhlans of the Guard. During World War I he was excused from service against the British by the German Emperor, and spent the war in Berlin on the staff of the Governor of the city.
In 1921, the Prince succeeded as the head of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg of the House of Schleswig-Holstein, following his childless cousin Duke Ernst Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. This was the senior branch of the House of Oldenburg, to which the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, the King of Denmark, the King of Norway, the King of the Hellenes, the former Grand Duke of Oldenburg and the Russian Imperial Family belonged.
As the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and as the Head of the House of Oldenburg, Duke Albert was succeeded by his distant cousin Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Glucksburg (who happened to be also the husband of a daughter of Albert's uncle Frederick August of Augustenborg).
Despite never marrying, Prince Albert fathered a daughter, Valerie Marie. Born 3 April 1900 in Liptovský Mikuláš, Hungary, Austria–Hungary, she was placed almost immediately after her birth with Anna Rosenthal and her husband Rubin Schwalb, of Jewish origin. On 15 April 1931, shortly before his death, Albert wrote to her, admitting to her his paternity. After this, on 12 May she changed her surname from Schwalb, the name of her foster family, to "zu Schleswig-Holstein".
On 28 June 1925, in Vienna, Valerie Marie (then only the daughter of the Schwalb family) married the lawyer Ernst Johann Wagner, but divorced him on 14 February 1938; the childless marriage was formally annulled in Salzburg on 4 October 1940. When she intended to marry again, it became important to establish her parentage officially, as the Nazi laws prohibited marriages between Jews and Aryans. This was done with the assistance of her aunts, Helena Victoria and Marie Louise; they signed a statement attesting to her paternal lineage on 26 July 1938, officially acknowledging her.
In Berlin-Charlottenburg on 15 June 1939, a civil marriage took place between her and Prince Engelbert-Charles, 10th Duke of Arenberg, and, after the annulment of her first marriage a religious ceremony took place in Münster near Westfalen, on 9 October 1940; like his first marriage, this union was childless too. Valerie Marie died in Mont-Baron, Nice, France, on 14 April 1953 in an apparent suicide. She never knew the identity of her mother.
Latest complete investigations and documents of adoption of the Schwalb family have demonstrated that she was the daughter of Baroness Bertha Marie Madeleine of Wernitz (born 17 August 1868 in Berlin), a Prussian noblewoman who died 4 April 1900 in Liptovský Mikuláš as a consequence of the childbirth.[1][2][3]
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Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg
Born: 26 February 1869 Died: 27 April 1931 |
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| German nobility | ||
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| Preceded by Ernst Gunther |
Duke of Schleswig-Holstein 22 February 1921–27 April 1931 |
Succeeded by Friedrich Ferdinand |
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